Mammals
Northern Elephant Seal
Mirounga angustirostris · also called northern elephant seals
On a crowded breeding beach along the eastern Pacific coast, two massive male northern elephant seals rear up and clash violently for control of the beach, their inflatable noses bellowing loud calls audible well beyond the shoreline.
Overview
The northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, is a massive, deep-diving carnivore native to coastal breeding beaches and open ocean foraging habitat across a range of the eastern Pacific, from Mexico to Alaska. Its extraordinarily deep dives, dramatic size difference between males and females, and remarkable recovery from near-total extinction in the 19th century make it one of the most conservation-significant and physically extreme marine mammals found in the Americas.
From fewer than a hundred to hundreds of thousands
Few conservation recoveries are as dramatic as the northern elephant seal’s, a species hunted down to a mere handful of survivors before legal protection allowed it to rebuild an entire population from what was very nearly nothing.
Status
Least Concern and increasing, having rebounded dramatically from a low of fewer than a hundred individuals in the late 1800s to several hundred thousand today across the eastern Pacific.
Northern Elephant Seal: common questions
How deep can a northern elephant seal dive?
This species can dive deeper than 1,500 metres and remain submerged for close to two hours at a time, among the most extreme diving performances documented in any seal species, allowing it to hunt fish and squid far below the surface where few other marine predators venture.
Why do male northern elephant seals have such a large nose?
A male of this species develops a large, distinctive inflatable proboscis used to produce loud, resonant vocalisations during the breeding season, a feature that helps establish dominance and attract females while competing against rival males for control of a breeding beach.
How did the northern elephant seal recover from near extinction?
This species was hunted so intensively for its blubber during the 19th century that fewer than a hundred individuals are believed to have survived by the late 1800s, but legal protection allowed the population to rebound dramatically over the following century to several hundred thousand individuals today.
How much bigger are male northern elephant seals than females?
A male of this species can weigh several times as much as a female, one of the most pronounced size differences between the sexes found in any seal species, a difference tied directly to the intense physical competition males engage in for control of breeding beaches.