Southern sea elephant. Elephant seals are the largest predators in the world Where can you find elephant seals

In our age, when humanity has penetrated into space and we are eager to find at least some living organisms on Mars or other planets, one involuntarily wonders: are we properly acquainted with our earthly counterparts? How much do we know about them? Do we know their way of life? Needs? Behavior? Relationship with the outside world?

You don't have to look far for examples. How many of us have seen a live elephant seal? Of course, almost everyone knows that such animals exist. But few people were lucky enough to see in natural conditions these giants, exceeding the size and weight of rhinos, hippos and walruses. Elephant seals live in remote places, namely: in Patagonia - off the coast of Argentina, on the Macquarie Islands - south of Tasmania, on Signy Island, in South Georgia.

First of all, let's say that these are huge pinnipeds mammals belonging to the genus of earless seals (Phocidae), so named in contrast to eared seals— Otariidae. The length of males is from three to six meters, and such a colossus weighs up to two tons! In body shape, these giants resemble walruses, and their skin is just as thick and hard, but they do not have walrus tusks, but they have something like a short thick trunk (which is what elephant seals owe their name to). Very few of these amazing animals have survived to our time. And if we hadn’t realized at the last moment, they would have completely disappeared from the face of the Earth, like their close relatives - sea cows, discovered by naturalist Georg Steller in 1741, during an expedition to the Bering Sea. Having described these huge harmless herbivores, which were easy to shoot thanks to their sluggishness and gullibility, Steller unwittingly showed the way to easy prey for various enterprising people. By 1770 sea ​​cows(later called Steller) no longer existed.

Fortunately, this did not happen to sea elephants. First of all, because they live in areas that are difficult for humans to access: they either swim in the icy water of the polar seas of the southern hemisphere, where, in addition, sharp storm winds never subside, or briefly go to their rookeries located on desert rocky shores Patagonia or on small islands lost in the ocean. In addition, elephant seals, unlike their harmless relatives - dugongs, or sirens, peacefully nibbling sea grass in underwater "meadows", are by no means defenseless animals. Especially the males. Their teeth are sharp and their strength is enormous. The adult male is very aggressive. sea ​​elephants- predators: they feed on various aquatic animals, mainly fish.

There are two species of elephant seals: northern (Mirounga angustirostris) and southern (Mirounga leonina). northern view, which differs from the southern one by being narrower and long trunk, lives in California and Mexican waters. Due to predatory fishing in the last century, this species almost completely disappeared. By 1890, only about a hundred northern elephant seals remained, and only the strictest ban on fishing that followed allowed them to increase their number again. In 1960 there were already fifteen thousand of them.

Herds of the southern species were also subjected to ruthless extermination, the former vast range of which is now limited to only a few Antarctic islands, such as Kerguelen, Crozet, Marion, and South Georgia. Several rookeries have survived on Macquarie and Heard Islands. However, in temperate zone, where previously there were also rookeries of these animals - for example, on the southern coast of Chile, on King Island near Tasmania or on the Falkland Islands and the island of Juan Fernandez - now you will not see a single one ...

Today, elephant seals, one might say, have somewhat recovered from past shocks. In some places they even restored their former numbers. But this, of course, only where the animals are under strict protection, for example, on the Argentinean Valdez Peninsula, declared protected, or on the islands of Macquarie or Heard, where hunting for them has been prohibited for forty-five years. Animals are clearly thriving there, and their number is growing year by year. As for such islands as South Georgia and Kerguelen, part of the herd is still shot there from time to time. True, it is argued that they do this under strict scientific control.

Why were elephant seals so attractive to hunters? These animals were mined for the sake of one of their subcutaneous fat. Its layer reaches a thickness of fifteen centimeters! It is necessary for the animal to protect it from heat loss in the icy water in which it spends most life. And it was this fat that turned out to be so attractive. For its sake, elephant seals were ruthlessly killed, whole mountains of their carcasses rose along the shores, and right there on the shore in huge vats specially installed for this purpose they rendered fat ... On the Patagonian coast of Argentina alone, from 1803 to 1819, North American, English and Dutch fishermen drowned in a total of one million seven hundred and sixty thousand liters of "elephant fat". And this means that the number of animals killed for the sake of this reached no less than four - six thousand! They slaughtered them in the most barbaric way: they cut off the path to the saving water and stabbed them with spears or thrust burning torches into their open mouths ...

And now these huge vats and other equipment for melting fat are still lying along the shores of many islands of Patagonia, rusting in the salty sea wind ... These abandoned vats, as it were, personify the sad memory of the thoughtless and irresponsible exploitation of nature by man in the recent past and serve as a warning to future generations ...

And now, when people have stopped killing elephant seals, it's time to study them. This is done by several groups of scientists from different countries. Very successful observations of the life of these giants were made on the islands of Signy and South Georgia by English biologists under the direction of Dr. R. M. Loves of the British Antarctic Survey; at the same time, Australian scientists, led by Dr. R. Carrick, were working on Macquarie and Heard Islands. The results of their research were published in Canberra in 1964. Somewhat later, the well-known English zoologist John Varham made observations on the same islands.

What did you manage to learn about this rare and little-studied animal?

Despite its colossal size, the elephant seal is a good swimmer. This is facilitated by the spindle shape of his body. The elephant seal is capable of swimming at speeds up to twenty-three kilometers per hour. Moreover, in ice water reliable protection from the cold he is served by a kind of "quilted jacket" - a thick layer of subcutaneous fat. In the water, this overweight animal shows extraordinary maneuverability and dexterity: after all, here it has to get its own food, chasing fish, looking for accumulations of plankton and various crustaceans. The elephant seal is much worse adapted to living on land, although he has to spend a good quarter of his life there. Here it is difficult to imagine a slower and more clumsy animal! He painfully drags his heavy body over stony soil, moving with the help of only the front flippers. At this time, it resembles a huge snail or caterpillar: one “step” is only thirty-five centimeters for a sea elephant! Its own weight, so imperceptible in water, on land becomes an unbearable burden for the animal. It is not surprising that the sea elephant quickly gets tired of the stress, lies down and immediately falls into a heroic, sound sleep. The dream of the sea elephant is truly unbreakable - in any case, it is not so easy to wake him up. This is explained by the fact that for a very long time these giants had no enemies on land, and they, like rhinos, had no one to be afraid of and there was no need to sleep sensitively.

The deep sleep of elephant seals repeatedly surprised the English zoologist John Warham, who made his observations on Macquarie Island. Every morning, leaving his tent, he came across elephant seals lying side by side in front of the door and blocking his way. They were completely molting young males with a length of three to four and a half meters. They slept quite serenely, their breathing was deep and noisy, sometimes turning even into a rolling snoring. However, it was not difficult for the researcher to get over them: he walked right on their backs, and until the consciousness of these lumps it dawned that they had been walked on in forged boots (which made them raise their heads in fright), the disturber of the peace was already far away ...

No less amazing is the ability of elephant seals to sleep underwater. But how do animals manage to breathe at this time? After all, they have lungs, not gills! .. Scientists managed to find out the secret of such underwater sleep. After five or ten minutes of being underwater rib cage the animal expands, while the nostrils remain tightly closed. From this, the density of the body decreases, and it floats. At the surface of the water, the nostrils open, and for about three minutes the animal inhales air. Then it sinks to the bottom again. The eyes remain closed all this time: the elephant is clearly asleep.

Stones are usually found in the stomach of the elephant seal. Residents of the places where these animals live, believe that the stones serve as ballast during the immersion of elephants under water. There are other explanations as well. For example, stones in the stomach can contribute to the grinding of food - whole swallowed fish and crustaceans.

Elephant seals feed mainly on fish, and not at all on cuttlefish, as was previously thought. Cuttlefish in their "menu" is no more than two percent. But on the other hand, an adult sea elephant eats a lot of fish. According to famous zoologist Hagenbeck, the five-meter sea elephant Goliath, kept in his menagerie, ate an average of fifty kilograms of fish per day! Such reports led some ichthyologists to argue that the disappearance of elephant seals is a blessing, because they, they say, disputed the catch with fishermen ... However, careful studies have shown the absurdity of such conclusions: the food of elephant seals is mainly small sharks and rays that are not listed commercial fish... On land, during the breeding season, elephant seals are able to fast for weeks: at this time they do not eat anything, but live off their internal fat reserves.

Careful study of these animals in recent years has lifted the veil over many secrets of their life and behavior. In some ways, these clumsy colossi turned out to be a fairly convenient object for the researcher: it cost nothing, for example, to measure their length, calculate the number of individual herds, their composition, age groups, observe the “family” life of these animals, the birth of young animals, etc. d. But try to weigh such a whopper! After all, after all, a male who has risen “on its hind legs” (and this is their usual pose of a threat) becomes as tall as a good column, and even the sight of just one photograph of such a giant inspires awe. Where is the thought of grabbing it and throwing it on the scales! .. No, this is not an easy task - the study of such animals, and one must be a real enthusiast to take on this. After all, we must not forget about climatic features places where these observations are made: about continuous prickly winds, icy water, bare, inhospitable rocky landscape ... And yet, the researchers managed to conduct a very important work, which made it possible not only to determine the age of individual individuals, but also to trace their migrations, seasonal changes composition of herds, the process of molting, relationships in the herd.

But let's start in order. For four years, Australian explorers on the Heard and Macquarie Islands have been systematically branding baby elephant seals, much like domestic calves or foals are. By 1961, almost seven thousand baby elephants had been tagged. This subsequently made it possible to accurately determine the age of one or another animal, the order in which different age groups appear on the rookery, the attachment of individual individuals to their “homeland” or the tendency to change places ... So, the female under the number “M-102” four years in a row brought offspring in the same place and only in the fifth year moved half a kilometer further. Other patterns emerged as well. For example, "adolescent" groups of elephant seals appear on the rookery much later than the adults involved in breeding, which usually falls between August and mid-November. Molting in animals of different age groups also occurs in different time. Thus, the rookery is almost never empty - only the contingent of its inhabitants changes.

Among the males, four groups can be clearly distinguished. The first - "teenage" - includes animals aged from one to six years, their size does not exceed three meters. They appear on the rookery in winter, especially after storms, with the clear purpose of taking a break from swimming. These animals are the earliest to molt - in December (the beginning of summer in southern hemisphere), and then all the other animals appear in order of seniority: the older, the later.

The second, or “youthful”, group is formed by animals aged from six to thirteen years, their sizes are from three to four and a half meters. They come to the beach in autumn, shortly after the females have cubs, but they do not fight with older males, and even before the start of the rut (after the cubs are weaned) they swim out to sea.

The next age group is the so-called applicants. Such males, ranging in size from four and a half to six meters, with a proudly swollen trunk, are in a constantly aggressive mood and climb to fight with the owners of the rookery - the owners of "harems" - powerful old males, trying to beat off some of the females from them. These old experienced males make up the fourth age group.

Such an owner of the "harem" is a very imposing figure. He is huge, imposing, jealous and aggressive. If he were otherwise, he would not have been able to hold on to his “post”. After all, the “harem” usually consists of several dozen females, and in order to keep in obedience all these curious, striving to scatter in different directions and “flirting” with any “applicant” that has appeared, you need remarkable strength and an unsleeping eye ... Seeing an opponent, the owner " harem" emits an evil roar and rushes towards him, crushing everything that comes in its way: knocking over females and trampling cubs ... Such a "master" in general, as a rule, is an extremely "insensitive" animal. It often happens that he crushes newborn cubs to death. A case is described when a male lay down to sleep, crushing a desperately screaming cub under him, but did not even think of getting up to free the unfortunate one.

If the “harem” turns out to be large for one owner, he is forced to allow “assistants” into his territory who guard its remote areas ...

Observations have shown that the same old and strong male dominates the "harem" during the entire breeding season, and younger and weaker males are often forced to give up their place to a rival superior in strength to them. Although the fights of males are usually played out in the water, not far from the coast, panic also begins on the beach at this time - alarmed females scream, cubs try to escape. Therefore, from "harems", where they are disturbed too often, females try to move to calmer "harems".

The fight of males is an impressive sight. Rivals, having swum up to each other, rise “on their hind legs”, towering four meters above the shallow water, and freeze in this position for several minutes, resembling stone statues of monsters. Animals emit a dull roar, their trunks swell menacingly, irrigating the enemy with a cascade of spray. After such a presentation, the weaker enemy usually retreats backwards, continuing to roar menacingly, and, having moved to a safe distance, takes to his heels. The winner, on the other hand, lets out a proud cry and, having made several false throws in pursuit of the fugitive, calms down and returns to the beach.

When none of the opponents is going to give in, the fight flares up in earnest. Then both powerful bodies resoundingly hit each other, with a quick and sharp movement of the head, each tries to sink his fangs into the neck of the enemy. However, the skin of the seal is so hard and slippery, and even provided with a thick cushion of subcutaneous fat, that it rarely comes to serious injuries. True, scars and scars remain on the neck of males for life, but that's all.

No matter how intimidating such a battle may look from the outside, in most cases it does not come to serious bloodshed. Usually everything is limited to mutual intimidation, frightening roar and sniffling. The biological meaning of such behavior is clear: the strongest is revealed, which will take over the functions of the producer during mating season and how the successor of the family will pass on to their offspring positive traits. At the same time, the weaker young male does not die on the battlefield and is thus not excluded from the further process of reproduction of the species...

When individual plots and “harems” have already been distributed, there are practically no battles between male neighbors: if someone violates territorial integrity, it is enough for the “owner” to rise and growl so that the border violator immediately leaves.

In relation to humans, tall males do not always show aggressiveness. And not they, but just the females can be the most dangerous for the researcher who dared to penetrate into the very thick of the herd. John Warham, for example, more than once had to get acquainted with their sharp teeth and it’s shameful to run away, leaving a good piece of his trouser leg to the angry sea elephant as a keepsake…

It is worth talking about females in more detail. Females are much smaller than males - rarely they reach three meters in length and a ton of weight. They grow slowly, but physically develop faster than males: by the age of two or three they become sexually mature, while males reach sexual maturity much later.

The breeding season lasts from August to mid-November. Females appear on the rookery already "on demolition" and in five days they bring offspring. Most cubs will be born from late September to mid-October. The owners of "harems" vigilantly protect the females during the period of offspring.

Both females and males arrive at the beach well-fed after a thorough fattening in the sea. This is necessary for a long "fast" that they have to endure on land: males "fast" for up to two weeks, and females even for a whole month! But during this time, the females will have to endure all the hardships associated with childbirth and feeding the cubs, and the males - the stress of the subsequent mating season and the associated fights with rivals.

Having appeared on the beach and preparing for childbirth, the females are located at some distance from each other, and do not lie closely side by side, as in regular time. The birth itself lasts only about twenty minutes, and the cub is born already sighted. Moreover, he is very pretty: covered with wavy black fur and looking at the world huge luminous eyes. But the "baby" weighs about fifty kilograms, and reaches a length of one and a half meters, that is, the size of an adult seal ...

Having been born, the cub emits a short bark, reminiscent of a dog, the mother responds to him in the same way, sniffs him and thus remembers. Subsequently, she will unmistakably distinguish him among many other cubs and will be able to return if he makes an attempt to escape.

The upcoming birth can be immediately determined by the fact that loud-mouthed large brown birds, which in some areas are called skua, are circling over the woman in labor. These birds labor in the role of "midwives" for sea elephants. With extraordinary agility, they remove the birth membranes and the placenta, and on occasion they can cope with a stillborn cub. Skua is not averse to treating himself to milk spilled on the ground by lactating females.

This milk is extremely nutritious (almost half consists of fat), and the cubs grow up with unprecedented speed: they add from five to twelve kilograms a day! In the first eleven days they double their weight, and in two and a half weeks they triple it. True, they add a little in length, but they build up an impressive fat layer - seven and a half centimeters, which they will need first of all: it should protect their body from hypothermia during the upcoming long stay in the water.

After about a month, the cubs, or "kohoro" as they are called in Patagonia, the females stop feeding. By this time, their "baby" black fur has been replaced by silver-gray, they look very plump and contented. Soon they leave the "harem", crawling into the depths of the beach, where they lie down and build up their muscles. At the age of five weeks, the young begin their first timid swimming attempts. On quiet windless evenings, elephant seals clumsily descend into the water of the lagoons heated by the sun or the barrels left after low tide and carefully swim near the shore. Gradually, they become more confident and bold, venture on longer sea excursions, until nine weeks old they finally leave their native rookery and swim away into the distance ...

And again, one has only to wonder how rationally everything is arranged in nature. Young growth becomes independent precisely at the time when the prospects for its survival are most favorable. Just at this time, the surface of the sea is covered with a particularly thick layer of plankton, and young elephant seals are provided with easily accessible and high-calorie food for several months.

However, control over labeled animals has shown something else: half of the cubs die in the first year of their lives. Later, losses are significantly reduced, and about forty percent of the young already reach the age of four.

Based on these data, Australian experts have come to the following important conclusions. If it is necessary to shoot some part of the herd of elephant seals (due to overcrowding of the rookery, lack of food, etc.), then it should be young animals aged from five weeks to one year. But it is absolutely unacceptable to shoot adult males, as was once practiced in South Georgia, where about six thousand of them were killed once in one summer. Without proper guarding of the 'harems' by older, more experienced males, the herds decline because the younger males begin to fight each other incessantly for dominance. This is what incompetent human intervention in the affairs of nature leads to, and therefore rash actions without sufficient scientific justification should be avoided.

But let's go back to the elephant seal rookery, where the young have just left. After the "weaning" of the cubs, the females mate again with the owner of the "harem" and soon after that they go to sea - to take a break from the hardships of childbirth, eat well and build up a new layer of fat until their next appearance on the rookery - in February, during the molting period.

And here we should mention one of the most amazing adaptations of the animal organism to the conditions of existence: the development of the embryo in the womb of the female is temporarily suspended, and the embryo is, as it were, "preserved" for the entire unfavorable period of the animal's life - in this case, during molting. (A similar phenomenon is observed in some other animals - many pinnipeds, as well as in sable, rabbit, kangaroo, etc.) The development of the embryo continues only in March, when the molt in females is already over.

Powerful males, the owners of the beach, come to molt much later - around the beginning of April. The intense life on the rookery requires a longer recovery of strength.

As already mentioned, the younger ones appear first, and later the older ones. During molting, age groups stay together, but by gender: females with females, and males with males. The molt lasts, depending on age, one to two months. Until the end of it, the animals will never start swimming, because at this time the sensitive blood vessels of the skin are greatly expanded and a sharp cooling can cause a violation of the thermoregulation mechanism, which means inevitable death in ice water.

The appearance of a molting elephant seal is the most deplorable: the old skin hangs on it in torn rags. First, she gets off the muzzle, and then from the rest of the body. At the same time, the poor fellows scratch their sides and stomach with flippers, trying to speed up this process, which is clearly unpleasant for them ...

Moulting animals are usually located in some moss-covered swamp, not far from the coast, and, restlessly tossing and turning, stir up loose soil, turning it into a dirty mess. In it, they are immersed to the very nostrils. The stench around is terrifying at this time. So not every tourist is able to withstand it ... By the way, about tourists visiting reserved places. As already mentioned, the Argentine government has declared the small peninsula of Valdes in the north of Patagonia a protected area. On this peninsula, a colony of elephant seals settled, numbering several hundred heads. It is called "elephanterium" (elephant), and with recently is open to visitors. One hundred and sixty-five kilometers from the rookery, the resort town of Puerto Madryn arose. And since the water here is often too cold for swimming, many vacationers willingly take excursions to the "elephantry". They offer paid tour guides. In addition, the tourist route, which runs through a number of South American countries, includes a visit to the Valdes Peninsula with its elephant seal rookery. The ever-increasing flow of tourists, loudly expressing their delight and constantly clicking cameras, certainly unnerves the animals, disrupts their usual way of life, especially at a time when females bring offspring. Males - the owners of "harems" here began to behave much more aggressively than usual. They angrily rush towards annoying visitors, trying to drive them away from "their" territory, or drive their entire "harem" into the water...

There are 2 species in the genus:

southern elephant seal - M. leonina Linnaeus, 1758 (subantarctic waters circumpolar north to 16 ° S and south to Antarctic pack ice - 78 ° S; breeds near Punta Norte and Tierra del Fuego in Argentina and on islands of Falkland, South Shetland, South Orkney, South Georgia, South Sandwich, Gough, Marion, Prince Edward, Crozet, Kerguelen, Hurd, Macquarie, Auckland, Campbell);

northern elephant seal - M. angustirostris Gill, 1866 (islands off the coast of Mexico and California north to the Vancouver Islands and Prince Wales; breeds on the islands of San Nicolas, San Miguel, Guadalupe and San Benito).

The northern elephant seal was close to extinction by overfishing, but in recent times thanks to the prohibition of fishing, its numbers have increased significantly and continue to increase.

The total number of southern elephant seals is estimated at 600-700 thousand heads, and northern ones - only 10-15 thousand heads.

Southern elephant seals are hunted on coastal haulouts, and there are restrictions on fishing for the seasons, the size of the hunted seals at least 3.5 m long and their number. For example, in 1951, 8,000 elephant seals were allowed to be harvested; mined 7877. Fat and skin are obtained from the mined animals.

The southern sea elephant (lat. Mirounga leonina) is the largest representative of the True Seal family (lat. Phocidae) on our planet. This pinniped predator is the original inhabitant of the cold regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

Two hundred years ago, sailors described the sea elephants they saw and killed, up to 9 m in size and weighing about 5 tons. Modern zoologists do not believe in the existence of such giants, although males, reaching 6.5 m and weighing more than 3.5 tons, are still quite common now.

The mass extermination of these animals until the middle of the twentieth century occurred mainly for the sake of unusually strong skin and fat (blubber). Up to 350 kg of fat was rendered from one sea elephant, used for food and for lighting dwellings. In 1964, the species was taken under protection and is currently not threatened by anything, but total strength population reached approximately 750 thousand individuals.

The mammal got its name due to the presence of a leathery bag in males, resembling an elephant's trunk.

Behavior

Southern elephant seals spend most of their lives in cold ocean waters. They come to the shores of Antarctica and nearby islands only during the molting season and during the mating season.

In the ocean, these giants not only hunt and dive for great depths but also rest and even sleep. They sleep underwater, holding their breath for up to 20 minutes. Then they wake up, take a deep breath and fall back into a pleasant slumber. On land, the sleep phase is shorter and does not exceed 10 minutes.

Elephant seals feed on stingrays, sharks, bony fish and cephalopods, but their teeth are weak. Although fangs reach a length of 4 cm, they serve more for ritual fights than for tearing prey. Due to poorly developed molars, it is very difficult for the seal to chew solid food, so cephalopods are its main and favorite food.

During the hunt, the animal can dive to a depth of 1000 m.

It swims by paddling with its front flippers. The rear flippers serve as rudders and help maneuver in the water column. To dive to great depths allow strong muscles, tightly squeezing the nostrils. This muscle reflex is so strong that the animal can suffocate underwater, but never choke.

The molt runs from February to mid-April. At this time the animals come out huge herds on land. They are located in damp meadows or peat bogs and lie in the mud for weeks until they shed their old hair and a layer of the epidermis. Over their rookery at this time there is a terrible stench. After molting, elephant seals again go to sea for the next 4 months.

reproduction

The mating season runs from mid-August to late October. Males are the first to come to land and seize parts of the coast, declaring their rights with a loud roar.

There are constant fights over territory. Males rise on flippers and rush at each other, inflicting deep wounds with their fangs. As a result, almost every adult elephant has a scarred skin. Many males die as a result of their wounds.

Before the fight, the males inflate their "trunks", trying to scare the enemy.

Often, a stronger fighter will swell more than a weaker fighter. For some, the “trunk” simply falls off from stress, and they admit defeat without entering into a fight. The showdown lasts for 2 weeks, after which the females come to the rookery.

Around male winners harems are formed. Once on land, the first thing the females do is give birth to cubs conceived a year ago. Babies are born, covered with soft black wool, weighing from 45 to 50 kg and body length 125-130 cm. For a month, mothers feed them with very fatty milk.

During this time, babies gain weight three times and at the end of lactation form separate rookeries from adults. After that, the females are again ready for procreation.

The harem of each male consists of 20-30 females, whom he jealously protects from the encroachments of anxious competitors. Often, males put pressure on the death of not only babies, but also mothers who feed them. Such a fate befalls a tenth of the offspring.

After mating, the females immediately go to sea. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, of which 4 months the embryo is in the latent stage and does not develop. Severely emaciated female elephants struggle to get to the feeding grounds, where they actively hunt in order to replenish their fat reserves.

Only when the fat reserves reach the norm, the embryos in their body begin to develop again.

Female elephant seals become sexually mature in the third year of life, and males at the age of 3-7 years, depending on the size of the population.

Description

The body length of adult males reaches 5-6.5 m, and they weigh from 2.4 to 3.5 tons. The females are much smaller. Their body length does not exceed 3 m, and their weight is 900 kg.

The body is very muscular and has a streamlined shape. It is covered with short hair. The skin on the nape and neck is very hard, strongly keratinized.

The head is short and rounded. nose and top part the muzzles of males are modified into a leathery bag, similar to an elephant's trunk. The fore and hind limbs are modified into flippers. The forelimbs are equipped with strong claws.

The life span of female elephant seals is about 14 years. Males in captivity live up to 20-22 years, but in natural conditions they die in fights much earlier.

Your name sea ​​Elephant received thanks to located above oral cavity a process that resembles a trunk. A trunk 30 cm long grows in males closer to eight years of age, in females the process is completely absent.

An interesting fact about the sea elephant is the property of the trunk to increase in size up to 60-80 cm during sexual arousal. Males shake their proboscis in front of competitors in the hope of scaring them.

Description and features of the sea elephant

Pro maritime elephants researchers have collected a large number of information. On the photo of sea elephant resembles: the body of an animal is streamlined, the head is small in size with a trunk on which vibrissae are located (mustache with high sensitivity), the eyeballs are in the shape of a flattened oval and are painted in dark color, the limbs are replaced by flippers, which are equipped with long claws reaching 5 cm.

Elephant seals are poorly adapted to life on land, because their obese body prevents them from moving: one step of a large animal is only about 35 cm. Because of their sluggishness, they bask on the shore and sleep almost all the time.

Pictured is a sea elephant

Their sleep is so strong that they even snore, biologists even managed to measure their temperature and heart rate during their rest. one more interesting fact about elephant seals is the animal's ability to sleep underwater.

This process occurs as follows: 5-10 minutes after falling asleep, the chest expands, as a result of which the density of the body decreases slightly and it slowly rises.

After the body is on the surface, the nostrils open and the elephant breathes for about 3 minutes, after this time it descends back into the water column. Eyes and nostrils during underwater recreation are in the closed position.

Sea elephant during sleep can dive under water and emerge

For people who first encounter this animal, the question arises: What does a sea elephant look like?? Male elephant seals are much larger than females. If the body length of the male is on average about 5-6 m, elephant seal weight- can reach 3 tons, the body length of females is only 2.5 - 3 m, weight - 900 kg. For this species of elephants, a characteristic gray thick fur.

Elephant seals living in have a little big sizes their northern relatives - weight about 4 tons, length - 6 m, and their fur is colored brown. In the water, animals move with enough high speed up to 23 km/h.

Pictured is a northern elephant seal

Elephant seal lifestyle and habitat

Elephant seals spend most of their time in their natural element, water. On land, they are selected only for mating and molting. The time of their stay on the surface of the earth does not exceed 3 months.

places, where sea elephants live depends on their type. Exists northern elephant seal living on the coasts North America, and southern elephant seal whose residence is Antarctica.

Animals lead a solitary life, gather together only to conceive offspring. During their stay on land, elephant seals live on beaches strewn with pebbles or stones. The rookery of animals can number more than 1000 individuals. Elephant seals are calm, even a little phlegmatic animals.

Elephant seal food

Elephant seals feed on cephalopods and. According to some reports, the elephant seal, which is about 5 m long, eats 50 kg. fish.

Due to its large physique, a lot of air is retained in a large volume of blood, which helps sea ​​elephants dive to a depth of about 1400 meters in search of food.

During a deep dive under water, the activity of all important organs slows down in an animal - this process greatly reduces oxygen consumption - animals are able to retain air for up to two hours.

Elephant skin is thick and covered with coarse short hair. The animal has a lot of fat deposits, which are somewhat burned during the mating season, when they do not eat at all.

AT elephant seals antarctica go to warm time years in search of prey. During migration, they are able to overcome the path, the length of which is about 4800 km.

Reproduction and lifespan of the sea elephant

Males reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age. But at this age they mate very rarely, because they are not yet strong enough to defend the right to mate with other Scythians. Males acquire sufficient physical strength at least eight years of age.

When the time of the mating season comes (and this time is from August to October for the southern elephant seal, February for gray elephant seal), animals gather in large groups, where from 10 to 20 females fall out for one male.

There are fierce battles between males for the right to have a harem in the center of the colony: males shake their short trunks, roar loudly and rush at the enemy in order to inflict as many injuries as possible with the help of sharp fangs.

Despite their large physique, in a fight, males can almost completely raise their body, remaining above the ground to stand on only one tail. Weak young males are forced to the edge of the colony, where the conditions for mating females are much worse.

After establishing the owner of the harem, already pregnant females give birth to cubs that were conceived in the previous year. Pregnancy lasts a little less than a year (11 months). The body length of a newborn cub is 1.2 m, weight is 50 kg.

The body of the cub is covered with soft brown fur, which sheds a month after birth. Brown fur changes to dark gray thick fur. After the birth of the offspring, the female brings up and feeds him with milk for a month, and then again mates with the male.

At the end of the month, the young live on the shore for a couple more weeks, while not eating anything, using the previously accumulated fat for consumption. The offspring goes into the water two months after birth.

And whites are the worst enemy for young elephant seals. Because mating sea ​​elephants the process is quite intense (fights, "persuasion" of the female), most of the cubs die due to the fact that they are simply crushed.

The life expectancy of males is about 14 years, females - 18 years. This difference arises from the fact that males receive many serious injuries during competitions, which worsens general state health. Often the injuries are so severe that the animals cannot recover from them and die.

Sea Elephant

The elephant seal is the largest pinniped. There are two types of elephant seals - the northern elephant seal, which lives on west coast the North American continent, and not unlike the southern elephant seal living in Antarctica.

Elephant seals got their name because of their impressive size and proboscis-like nose, which only males of these animals have.

The "trunk" is absent in females and very young male elephant seals. The nose of males grows gradually and only by the eighth year of life acquires its final dimensions. The large trunk of adult males hangs down over the mouth with nostrils down.

sea ​​elephant and man

During the mating season, male elephant seals become very aggressive and fight fierce battles among themselves. During these fights, the male can tear the enemy's nose to shreds.

The sizes of males and females in elephant seals are very different. The male can reach a length of 6 and a half meters, females up to 3 and a half.

Elephant seals spend most of their lives alone, like cats. Only when it's time to mate do elephant seals gather in large herds. At the same time, there are at least ten females per male, sometimes the ratio reaches twenty.

Fights between male elephant seals take place for the possession of a harem. Young elephant seals are forced to the edges of the colony, where their chances of mating are less. But driven by instinct, they regularly try to get into the center of the colony, which leads to violent fights.

In the hustle and bustle of colonies, many baby elephant seals die under the weight of large males. In fact, infant mortality in these colonies is enormous.

Constant contractions are the reason why male elephant seals live four years less than females. The male can live up to 14 years.

The basis of the diet of elephant seals are fish and cephalopods. For prey, they can dive to great depths, up to 1400 meters. Elephant seals have this ability because of the large volume of blood in which a lot of oxygen is stored.

Elephant seals are endangered by killer whales and white sharks that hunt in the upper layers of the water.

Let's look at two types of elephant seals.

northern elephant seal

Previously, this species was very numerous and lived along the entire coast of North America from Alaska to Baja California. But in the 19th century, northern elephant seals began to be massively hunted for their blubber.

For some time this species was considered extinct, but one colony has survived on the Mexican island of Guadalupe. Today this species is under protection and its population is steadily increasing.

southern elephant seal

The southern elephant seal is the largest representative of the pinnipeds. It lives in the waters of the Antarctic and subantarctic. The length of the southern elephant seal reaches six meters, and the mass can reach four tons.

Most of the population lives in the Subantarctic. Earlier colonies of this species were in Tasmania, King Island, Juan Fernandez and Saint Helena. But mass fishing led to the complete destruction of these colonies.

The number of the southern species of elephant seals currently reaches 670-800 thousand individuals.

Sea elephants ( Mirounga) is the largest genus in the family of true seals,. There are two types of elephant seals, named according to the hemisphere in which they live. northern elephant seals ( Mirounga angustirostris) are found in coastal waters around Canada and Mexico, and southern elephant seals ( mirounga leonina) are common off the coast of New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.

Description

The oldest confirmed fossils of these animals date back to and they were discovered in New Zealand.

Only an adult male has a large trunk, similar to. The male uses it to roar during the mating season.

Southern elephant seals are slightly larger than northern ones. pronounced, males of both species are much larger than females. The average weight of an adult male of the southern species can be 3000 kg, and the body length can reach 5 m. An adult female weighs about 900 kg, and her body length is approximately 3 m.

The color of the animal depends on sex, age and season. It can be rusty, light or dark brown, or gray in color.

The sea elephant has big body, short front flippers with toes and webbed rear flippers. Under the skin is a thick layer of fat that protects the animal in cold weather. Every year, elephant seals molt.

Average life expectancy is 20 to 22 years.

reproduction

Elephant seals are solitary animals. They return to established breeding colonies every winter. Females become sexually mature at the age of 3 to 6 years, and males - at 5-6 years.

However, males must reach alpha status to mate, which usually occurs between 9 and 12 years of age. Males fight each other using body mass and teeth. While deaths are rare, injuries are common. An alpha male's harem is between 30 and 100 females. Other males are found along the edges of the colony, sometimes mating with the females before the alpha males chase after them. Males stay on land during the winter to defend territory.

About 79% of adult females mate, but only more than half of them produce offspring. The gestation period lasts about 11 months, at the end of which one cub appears. The milk of a female contains an extremely high percentage of fat content, over 50% (compared to 4% fat content in female milk). Females do not eat for one month to feed the young. The next mating occurs within last days feeding.

Nutrition and behavior

Elephant seals are mammals. Their diet includes squid, octopus, eels, fish, krill, and sometimes. Males hunt at the bottom, while females hunt in the open ocean. Elephant seals use the sight and vibration of their whiskers to find food. They can attack sharks, killer whales and humans.

These animals spend about 20% of their lives on land and about 80% in the ocean. Although they are, elephant seals are capable of outpacing humans on land. In the sea, they develop a speed of 5-10 km / h.

Elephant seals can dive to great depths. Males spend more time underwater than females. An adult male is able to stay under water for about two hours and dive to a depth of about 2 km.

conservation status

Elephant seals were hunted for their meat, fur and fat. Poaching has brought the species to the brink of extinction. By 1892, most people believed that northern elephant seals were extinct. But in 1910, a single breeding colony was discovered near the island of Guadalupe off the coast of the Mexican state of Baja California. At the end of the 19th century, new conservation legislation was introduced marine environment to protect these animals. Today, elephant seals are no longer endangered, although they are at risk of becoming entangled in litter and fishing nets, and may be injured in collisions with watercraft. The IUCN lists them as Animals of Least Concern.

• Scientists have determined that at warm water temperatures, more males are born than females.
• The screech of orcs in the mines of Moria in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was the sound of baby elephant seals.
• In 2000, a male elephant seal named Homer terrorized the New Zealand city of Gisborne. Homer attacked cars, boat trailers, trash cans, trees, and even a transformer.