Elephant seal bulls are large and in charge on SLO County beaches

The massive elephant seal bulls have taken over the beach at Piedras Blancas north of San Simeon.

Few small females and juveniles remain. The remaining elephant seals are big and bigger, pushing each other around, but lacking the fervor of the mating season.

The viewpoint remains open to visitors. It’s easy to stay six feet or more from other visitors, most of whom are wearing masks.

A visit to the seals can be a welcome respite from the pandemic. Docents have not yet returned to answer questions, so check the Friends of the Elephant Seal website, www.elephantseal.org, for answers.

Male elephant seals are molting skin

The bulls are on the beach to molt their skin, an annual process.

Look at the nuance of colors, from shiny black when they come out of the water, to shades of medium to dark brown of last year’s coat, to pearly gray of the new skin. The new skin looks pearly gray, because the individual hairs are just emerging.

They are darker on their backs and lighter on their bellies, called countershading. It’s a form of camouflage from predators.

To predators looking up from below, the light belly blends with the bright light of the surface. To predators looking down from above, the dark back blends into the dark depths.

The skin peels off in chunks. It doesn’t seem to trouble the seals, who spend most of their time on the beach sleeping.

Look closely for unusual scars, from great white sharks, cookie cutter sharks or boat strikes.

Bulls gain blubber

Some of the bulls have done really well since they left the beach in March, at the end of breeding season. Then, they were at their slimmest, having lived on their blubber for as long as 100 days.

They’ve been feeding since then, bulking up their blubber.

Several truly huge bulls are on the beach. And they have another five months to gain more before they come back to the beach for the breeding season.

The marine mammals will be at their maximum weight in November and December.

Listen for the bellow

Bulls often announce their arrival, or call from the water. Researchers played recordings of Ano Nuevo bulls at Piedras Blancas, and didn’t get a rise out of the bulls. The seals recognize the bellows of the seals in their location.

Each male has a unique call, identifiable to his fellows.

Each male has a calling posture. It may lie down, be at 45 degrees, or sit upright.

They have to be loud, to make themselves heard over wind and surf. The loudest call measured registered 126 decibels, one of the loudest sounds made by mammals on land.

Elephant seal hearing isn’t very sharp, either, because of how the animals have adapted to life as deep as a mile in the ocean. They don’t hear low and distant sounds as well as humans, but they can hear higher frequencies.

On land, they can sense each other’s movement through ground vibrations.

Recognizing each other’s vocalization helps reduce fighting. Bulls who have fought each other before don’t need to fight again during the season. They know who won last time.

It’s mostly talk on the beach in the summer, anyway. Without females to fight over, the bulls take summer easy.