Elephant seals fewer but louder in February

Not as many seals on the beach at Piedras Blancas as there were in January, but they are louder. Females bark at males attempting to mate with them. Weaned pups bark demands at their mothers and generally announce themselves. Males threaten each other or sneak across the beach to mate with one more female. The breeding season is almost over.

The last of the pregnant females have delivered their pups. Some skinny newborns are getting started. The pups born in December and January are now fat weaners. They have molted their black newborn hair. Their new silvery coats will soon fade to light, elephant seal tan.

They are fat and round, weighing about 300 pounds, filling out the skin that was wrinkled when they were born. Some steal milk from other mothers and gain a couple hundred pounds more, achieving superweaner status. Some superweaners are so fat they can hardly move. They will lose some weight before they depart on their first migration, but the extra weight probably isn’t a survival advantage. The additional blubber may make it more difficult for them to dive to hunt fish and squid.

The weaners stay out of the way of the adult seals. The beachmaster bulls eye each other for the main chance of mating with the remaining females. Females come into estrus — heat — during the last week of their month-long lactation. Then they go back into the ocean, leaving the pups on their own.

Pups don’t appear to mind. They’ve got the weight they need to live for six or eight weeks on the beach without eating. Their metabolism changes, from gaining blubber to metabolizing it.

After the adults leave the beach, the weaners will start the important work of learning to swim so that they can catch their own food in the ocean. They’re active at night, in the dark, practicing in conditions similar to the dark depths at which they hunt.

Females mate before they return to the ocean, getting a fertilized egg started for next year’s pup. They’ve lost about a third of their body weight nursing this year’s pup, so they are thin and depleted now. The fertilized egg doesn’t start developing right away. In a process called delayed implantation, the fertilized egg waits about three months before starting to develop. The time gives the female a chance to eat and gain weight before a new embryo demands nourishment from her system. Females will return to the beach in May for their annual molt.

There’s 11 months between mating and birth, but actual gestation is only eight months. Typically, every female has one pup every year.

Watching for whales

Lift up your eyes from the beach and gaze out at the ocean. Gray whales may be spouting out there, migrating along the coast to and from Mexico. They swim south from the Arctic to give birth to their calves in Mexico’s warm waters in the fall, then head back north. The cow-calf migration in March works up to peak numbers in April and May.

Mothers bring their calves closer to shore on the northward migration. They may stop in one area to nurse the calf or swim more slowly so the calf can keep up. On one day in mid-February, whales spouted in one location for an hour.

Monarch migration

Monarch butterflies winter in California. Keep an eye out for them flitting above your head. Californians have the privilege of protecting Piedras Blancas and its wildlife for the world.

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Elephant seals fewer but louder in February."