Irate males guffaw loudly through their ginormous proboscises beside dozing female elephant seals who nurse their ... at the Piedras Blancas rookery near Cambria. Visitors can observe these ...

A mother elephant seal barks to a pup who appears to be listening on Dec. 30, 2024. The seals were lounging near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, where pups will be born through January.

When that happens, elephant seals will move up the beach away from the crashing waves on top of plants and vegetation near coastal dunes. To protect them, the National Park Service closes key ...

MORE: Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction, are preventing coastal erosion as their populations grow, study finds During the migratory route, the elephant seals enter the "twilight zone ...

Northern elephant seals weigh up to 2.2 tons at full size and reach up to 13 feet in length, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. They eat squid, fish, rays and sharks.

Whenever it was possible, the team identified individual elephant seals based on their visible body marks or scars, and the distinctive eyeliner markings that are located near their eyes while ...