Tons and Tons of Blubber, Sea Elephants by Hedepo

Photography • Animals • posted on Jul 07, 2007

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Description

Tons and Tons of Blubber, Sea Elephants Just to close week with some heavey weights, only a few of the total population on one of the beaches at the pacific coast of California. Have a wonderful weekend Henk Elephant seals are large, oceangoing mammals in the genus Mirounga, in the earless seal family (Phocidae). There are two species: the Northern Elephant Seal, M. angustirostris, and the Southern Elephant Seal, M. leonina. Both were hunted nearly to extinction by the end of the nineteenth century, but numbers have since recovered. The Northern Elephant Seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the Pacific coast of the U.S. and Mexico. Elephant seals take their name from the great size of their bodies and the large proboscis of the adult males (bulls) which resembles an elephant's trunk. The bull's proboscis is used in producing extraordinarily loud roaring noises, especially during the mating season. More importantly, however, the nose acts as a sort of rebreather, filled with cavities designed to reabsorb moisture from the animals' exhalations. This is important during the mating season when the male seals rarely leave the beach to feed, and therefore must conserve body moisture, as they have no incoming source of water. Commonly, bulls of both the northern elephant seals and the southern elephant seals reach a length of 18 ft (5.5 m) and a weight of 5,000 lbs (2,270 kg), which are much larger than the females that usually measure about 10 ft (3 m) in length. The largest known bull elephant seal measured 30 ft (6.7 m) in length and weighed 7490 lbs (3400 kg). This places the elephant seal as the largest member of the order Carnivora. Elephant seals spend up to 80 percent of their lives in the ocean. They can hold their breath for over 80 minutes