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February 28, 2006
Did You Know? Elephant Bites
Did you know that elephants have six teeth, some of which are continually replaced, much like sharks?
The Better To Poke You With...
Elephant tusks are actually just specialized upper incisors. These are used primarily for digging and defense.
Elephants use their tusks to dig for water, salt, or yummy roots to eat. They also use them to strip bark from trees. They do this to uncover the tasting tree pulp beneath. This has become such a problem in some trees, like the ancient baobab trees, have been surrounded with boulders to keep the elephants away.
In terms of defense, elephants may use their tusks to fight elephants, as well as to fend off other predators. You'll also see elephants sawing away at trees with their tusks, marking their territory.
African Elephants, both males and females, have big, ivory tusks. Some curve over ten feet long, and grow very fast - up to half a foot per year! The bump-headed Asian male elephants have tusks, but the females don't really have them.
Elephants favor one tusk over the other, just as people are generally right or left-handed. The dominant tusk, also refered to as a master tusk, is often more worn down.
The Better To Chew With...
Elephants are herbivores. They eat a lot of leaves, shoots, and roots, and so they need really good chewing teeth. During their lives, they have a set of four teeth - two bicuspids and two molars. Instead of having a set of baby teeth followed by adult teeth, like most other mammals (humans included), elephants have a a finite tooth replacement cycle, much like some sharks. Six times over the course of their lifetime, the elephant will lose its teeth and get them replaced with new ones, for a total of 24 teeth.
An old elephant will lose its last pair and be restricted to soft foods, much like an elderly person might be. This is why you'll often see very old elephants lurking in marshes where food is more to their tastes, so to speak.
Some of this info came from: DK Pocket Nature Facts & Wikipedia
For More On Elephants, check out African Field Notes: The African Elephant!
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February 23, 2006
Año Nuevo: A Wildlife Preserve
Less than 60 miles from the seven million people living in the Bay area (and 26.66 miles from my house according to MapQuest) lay a relatively untouched nature preserve on a rocky point overlooking the Pacific Ocean. When Spanish explorers first sailed by in 1603, they named the area Punta de Año Nuevo (New Year's Point).
More than four hundred years later, the point looks much as it did. It has, however, changed hands several times over the course of history.
At the time the Spanish sailed by, the Ohlone Indians lived on the sand dunes. Even today you can see middens, which are mounds of shells, animal bones, and other refuse that indicates the site of a human settlement. They are also believed to contain the remains of the Indians themselves. Later the area became pastureland and finally a private ranch and dairy farm.
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Pigeon Point Lighthouse |
Several ships wrecked on the foggy coast north of Santa Cruz, causing the feds to install a lighthouse at Pigeon Point, and a light tower to be built on the rocks at Año Nuevo Point. Over the years, the sand dunes have blown back into the ocean, disconnecting the light tower from the mainland and forming and island. Less than a hundred years ago, you could walk out to the point at low tide, but now the island is completely disconnected. However in 1948, the house and light tower on the point was replaced by an automatic buoy. Nowadays maritime traffic can avoid the point and shallows using GPS navigation, but even today foolish sailing vessels occasionally venture into the shallows and flounder.
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Great White Shark |
And it's a very bad spot to wreck a ship. The area from Ano Nuevo north to Point Reyes and then out to the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore forms a region called the Red Triangle. Every year, countless marine mammal species come here to breed and have their young. This activity attracts lots of great white sharks and more attacks occur in this region than anywhere else in the world. The title Red Triangle is a rather gruesome one, likely originating from the blood slicks that often make the ocean run red after a shark attack. And right smack in the middle of this triangle is...? You guessed it! Año Nuevo Point.
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Nature Trail |
Elephant seals, a favorite snack of the great white shark, first appeared at Año Nuevo Island in the 1950's. The first pup was born on the island in 1961, and then in 1975 on the mainland sand dunes.
In 1971, the state bought the ranch. These days the old ranch house, dairy and other historic buildings at Año Nuevo have been restored. The largest barn has become a Visitor Center with a museum showcasing the wildlife, geology, botany, and natural history of the point.
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Northern Elephant Seal Rookery |
Today Año Nuevo State Reserve is a relatively untouched corner of California, protected by the state. It is home to many marine creatures and plants, not to mention the hundreds of species of raptors, shorebirds, and other mainland critters. But what really draws the visitors is the fact that Año Nuevo is now the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seals.
Check out our Año Nuevo Elephant Seal podcast - a video that features this location!
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Año Nuevo State Reserve: The Flora
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Morning Fog |
Heavy winter rainfall combined with frequent fog creates an interesting botanical ecosystem of scrubs and low-lying twisted trees. This same fog creeps into the valleys, supporting the coastal redwoods.
Much of the Pacific coastline is windy, foggy, and salty. This makes it difficult for many plants to grow. The trees are often twisted and stunted, when they grow at all. Most of what grows is low-lying scrubby bushes, many of which have very small leaves. Conifers with their drought-tolerant needle-leaves tend to do better than most plants. This biome, or natural environment, is called Chaparral. The California chaparral and woodlands terrestrial ecoregion extends from central California to Baja.
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Native Willow |
Willow bark has been used as a medicine for centuries - even has far back as 400 BC. More recently, the Ohlone Indians chewed the bark of the native willow for its fever and pain relieving properties. The Ohlone Indian civilization was disrupted by the arrival of the Spanish missionaries, and later American pioneers. The last fluent speaker of an Ohlone language died in 1939.
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Año Nuevo Grassland After Controlled Burn |
Año Nuevo has used fire as a tool to manage and protect certain habitats that are changing over time due to various factors. There is a large grass field in the reserve, and although many people believe that open areas are the product of human intervention, grassland is considered the eighth rarest ecosystem in the United States.
Much of the coastal prairie of Santa Cruz County has become scrubland over time. However, this grassland is actually often a native ecosystem, which is the habitat of creatures like San Francisco garter snake ( Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia). This endangered snake is only found on the San Francisco peninsula in about 20 spots, including the Año Nuevo State Reserve. When the sole grassland habitat of the reserve became overrun with shrubbery, then snake conservationalists came out, caught all the snakes from the field, did a controlled burn, and then re-released the snakes (hopefully to the same spots they got them from).
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Non-Native Ice Plant |
Coast ice plant (Carpobrotus chiloensis) was once though to be native to California. We now believe that ice plant was introduced from Australia in the late 1890's to stabilize the dunes. However, researchers have found that dunes with non-natives do not support as many plants and animal species as those which are populated by native plants. This makes sense if you think about it: flora and fauna of an ecosystem are closely bound together in terms of dependence. Native animals generally eat native plants - and native plants depend on native animals often for nutrients and for pollination, seed spreading, etc.
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Clover Fields |
The California coastline is still quite desolate, and is made up mostly of farmland. You'll often see cattle grazing and crops like brussel sprouts and artichokes growing along the coastline. You'll also pass smaller, organic berry farms and in spring, many fields are covered with yellow clover. Clover has long been used in an agricultural practice called soiling, where farmers grow nutrient-rich clover to fertilize the field, but also they will feed the greenery to livestock in the barn. This allows ranchers to use less pastureland with their cattle, because they can graze in the barn.
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Año Nuevo State Reserve: Light Station History
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Between Pigeon Point and Año Nuevo |
On January 3, 1603, when the Quroste group of the Ohlone Indians lived on the point, the Spanish explorers on the ship of Don Sebastian Viscaino sailed by. Onboard, Father Antonio de la Ascension named the point Punta de Año Nuevo (New Year's Point) for the day on which they sighted it. It's likely for the best that they did not land there, or anywhere near it.
The Europeans did not actually come in contact with the Ohlone until the late 1700's, when Spaniard Gaspar de Portola, led an overland expedition to the San Francisco Bay. A series of religious outposts were established to spread the Christian doctrine among the local natives, as well as to give the Spanish a foothold in the California territories. The missions introduced European livestock and crops into the region, but along with religion, they also brought diseases that the native peoples had never been exposed to, and had no immunity of. Measles, plague, smallpox, typhus, and venereal diseases decimated the native population, killing 90% of the people.
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Shipwreck Relic |
The closest mission to Punta de Año Nuevo was Mission Santa Cruz, founded in 1791. Hundreds of Ohlones, including the Quroste clan, gathered to the mission to be baptized. Most became sick and those who survived saw their culture erode until they lost their native way of life entirely. There is no one left alive today that can speak the Ohlones language fluently. Año Nuevo was used as pastureland by the missionaries.
After generations used it for pastureland, then it became a private ranch, and then after that, a dairy before it was finally bought by the State of California in 1971. Today, the farm buildings have been renovated to be the Año Nuevo Visitor Center, natural history museum and ranger buildings. Slowly, the native plants are returning, erasing all traces of the agricultural legacy of the region. Sand mine operation during the 1950's during the construction of State Highway 1 caused significant damage to the sand dunes and caused erosion problems that still haunt us today - just look at Devil's Slide, less than a mile to the south of the point, which falls apart at every major earthquake and causes millions of dollars in taxpayer monies.
The San Francisco mission and military fort started out small, but Spanish, Mexican and British settlement was driven by fur trade (including seals) and pioneering. The California Gold Rush in 1849 clinched it. The railroad, banking, mining, and shipping industries became major economic forces in the city. Despite being famously foggy, the Port of San Francisco became the largest and busiest seaport on the western coast of North America.
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Pigeon Point Lighthouse |
Shipping traffic along the California coastline increased along with the population. The rocky, foggy shoreline became famous with seafarers for shipwrecks. The couple mile stretch of rocky coast between the point of Año Nuevo north to Pigeon Point saw several ships lost over a relatively short period of time and U.S. Coast Survey recommended building a lighthouse. But there were other priorities and the Santa Cruz lighthouse was built first. Finally, in 1872, a fog whistle was installed on the Año Nuevo and later was upgraded to a five-story light tower atop the water tank.
The first light was an oil lens lantern, tended by someone at the island's light station in 1890. In 1906, a two story house was built adjacent to the station and later, in 1915, a Fresnel lens was installed. The keeper’s home had 8 rooms for the head keeper and 7 rooms for the assistant keeper. The salty sea air constantly battered the wooden buildings, and maintenance was a major endeavor. Fences kept the sea lions and other pinnipeds at bay. Eleven years later, on October 22, 1926, an earthquake struck and the lens was broken. The lantern lens was again displayed until a replacement lens arrived. At its peak, the island had a light, along with the elaborate keeper’s dwelling, a tramway, dock, and a boathouse.
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Año Nuevo Island Light Station |
In 1948, the station was decommissioned. The Coast Guard determined that the expense of maintaining the island, its keepers, and its buildings, was too great. An automatic buoy with a light, sound, and radar reflector replaced the fog signal and light. By 1955, the federal government sold the island to the State of California, who classified the island as a scientific preserve to protect the seal breeding colonies who quickly took over the island.
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Northern Elephant Seal Rookery |
Today, the only people allowed out onto the island are researchers. Four kinds of pinnipeds live and birth their young on the island and the mainland. The house is derelict, with California sea lions venturing up onto the second floor, even hanging out in the abandoned bath tub. Birds nest in the rotting rafters. Needless to say, the place stinks. The light tower was dismantled in 1976 for safety's sake, and you can only see its foundation now.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Habitat
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Año Nuevo Point |
Año Nuevo State Reserve is home to the largest land-based rookery (breeding spot) of the Northern Elephant Seal in the world. More than two thousand pups are born here each and every year.
Despite the fact that the Northern Elephant Seal population was down under 100 animals about a century ago, the animals have made a rather spectacular recovery. The first elephant seal was spotted off the coast of Año Nuevo island in 1955, and soon after they began to haul out on the island. The first pup was born on the island in 1961, and then in 1975, the first pup was born on the mainland dunes.
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Sand Dunes |
The sand dunes at the point are ideal for raising elephant seal pups. when they're born, the pups cannot swim, nor do they have the protective blubber that allows the grown-up elephant seals to stay warm in the cold Pacific waters. Instead, the pups need some nice, dry land safe from storm surge and flooding, in order to nurse and grow their blubber. Then, as weaners, they need tidepools and shallows to teach themselves to swim and feed. Año Nuevo is ideal, as the dunes are sheltered from most of the storm surge, and the waters between the point and the island are very shallow. In fact, less than a century ago, one could walk from the point to the island at low tide.
As the Northern Elephant Seal population continues to grow, new rookeries have been established. But adequate habitats available to the seals are few and far between. Sometimes, elephant seals haul out in areas where humans have already taken over. These seals are often harassed, and rangers will sometimes chase these seals back into the water. A new rookery has been established in the past few years at Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, but during the last El Niño storm season, storm surge drown an entire season's batch of elephant seal pups.
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Negative Effects of Human Interaction |
But the elephant seals refuse to give up. One of the newest rookeries is along a stretch of Central California coastline near Hearst Castle. The rookery here is so close to the Pacific Highway that there have even been traffic accidents involving elephant seals.
Despite the fact that the elephant seal is no longer considered endangered, they are still under the protection of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which makes illegal any hunting, capturing, or killing, or harassment of any marine mammal. You must stay back at least 25 feet, often farther, from these wild creatures. That doesn't stop people from harassing the animals anyway. They'll poke them with sticks, throw rocks, and kick them. Dogs pose a special problem for elephant seals, causing them no end of grief. If you see someone harassing an elephant seal, or any other marine mammal, you should report them to the nearest ranger station or to the police.
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Año Nuevo Docent-Led Tours |
One of the best ways to see the Northern Elephant Seal safely in its native habitat, especially if you've never seen them before, is to take a docent-led tour at a place like Año Nuevo State Reserve. The docents are great for giving you lots of valuable information on the elephant seals, as well as the native plants, geology, and native peoples of the area.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Physical Traits
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Young Male Elephant Seal |
Northern Elephant Seals are carnivorous mammals. They cannot breathe underwater, but spend most of their time there. They come up onto land only to molt, mate, and birth cute little pups. The large, adult bulls can be up to 18 feet long and weigh 6000 pounds, although the cows are significantly smaller.
The seals have well-developed senses - sight, hearing, smell - but these all work better under the water than on land.
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Adult Male Proboscis |
The male Elephant Seal has a very unique nose, or proboscis. Only the mature males have this long nose, which can sometimes reach up to two feet in length when fully inflated. The nose is quite delicate, and scientists believe that its main purpose is to magnify his bellow. He pushes his nose down his throat when he makes his call, inviting other males to battle him and take their places in the dominance hierarchy. The sound can be heard up to a mile away.
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Strong Back Flippers For Propulsion |
Elephant Seals are incredibly agile swimmers. They have four flippers - two in the front and two in the back. The strong back flippers are used to propel the animal, while the front flippers are used for steering and walking on land.
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Strong Flippers |
Elephant Seals can swim up to 12mph and hold their breath for a long time - the record is 119 minutes. They have specially adapted bodies to help them live in the water. They have much more blood than a land mammal of similar size, and their blood contains more hemoglobin to hold oxygen. They also have more myoglobin in their muscles, allowing them to store oxygen there as well. Finally, they can shut off some of their bodily functions while submerged, and only supply vital ones with oxygen.
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Front Flippers For Steering |
Elephant Seal flippers have five digits, just like humans. Each digit has a nail-like claw, with the first and fifth being slightly longer than the others.
You'll often see Elephant Seals on land using their front flippers to scratch themselves or flip sand onto their backs in order to protect themselves from the heat of the sun. They do not use their flippers in battle with other bulls, from what I've seen.
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Big Black Eyes For Seeing Underwater |
Seals are quite famous for their large, black eyes. These eyes help the seal, an underwater hunter, find prey in the dark, deep waters where their favorite foods live. Seals have mirror-like membranes at the back of their eyes that help let in any available light.
Seals can see on land, but not as well as in the water. They can only see sharp images in bright light, otherwise they just see blurs. This allows researchers to sneak up on the animals fairly easily. It also allowed hunters to do so in centuries past.
Because they live primarily under the water, seals do not have tear ducts. On land, the tears used to keep their eyes moist drain right out of their eyes, making it appear that they are crying.
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Stiff, Sensitive Whiskers For Finding Food |
Visibility at 1500 feet is often non-existent. The Elephant Seal does not just depend on its eyesight to hunt, but its other senses at well. Seals depend on their sense of touch to hunt prey, and they also have long, sensitive whiskers.
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Whiskers For Finding Prey |
The seals can detect the waves of pressure produced by moving objects like fish. They can hunt down an animal that produced these waves up to two minutes prior, determining the direction they went and then catching them. Elephant Seals can also tell when they are swimming towards large, stationary objects by sensing their own waves bouncing back at them.
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30 Teeth For Holding Prey |
Elephant Seals have 30 spiky teeth for grabbing and holding their prey. They have four large, sharp canines that the bulls use as weapons when they fight each other. The seals do not have molars for chewing, but tend to swallow prey whole.
They eat deepwater fish like squid and octopus, sharks, skates, and ratfish, as well as halibut, cod, flounder, sole, anchovies, herring, smelt, and salmon. An adult male might eat hundreds of pounds of fish per day. If the seal opens its mouth underwater, its strong throat muscles seal off its lungs from the water pressure.
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Cumbersome Land Movement Of Elephant Seals |
Although the seals haul out for important activities like mating, they are quite clumsy on land. They flop along by dragging themselves on their bellies, pulling themselves by their front flippers. They leave long trails where they have dragged themselves up and down the sand dunes.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Keeping Cool
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Young Elephant Seal Bull Covers Himself With Sand |
When you've got six inches of blubber and a waterproof fur coat, you might imagine that sitting out on the beach for weeks without water might be a bit uncomfortable. and you'd be right.
But the Northern Elephant Seal does just that. Twice a year, they return to the beaches on which they were born, staying for one to three months on land, without water or food. They have several special adaptations that help them cope and keep their cool - literally.
If you watch the seals, you'll often see them flipping sand onto their backs. Seal researchers believe that this helps protect the elephant seal's skin from the sun and keeps them cool.
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Bull Cools Off In Tidepool |
During their stint on land, you'll often see the big male elephant seals called bulls hanging out in the tidepools to keep cool. You'll also see the young weaners, or recently weaned elephant seal pups, learning to swim here as well. You're not likely to see females in the tidepools. They come ashore to birth and nurse and mate, and then promptly leave.
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Bull In Tidepool |
The elephant seal can hold its breath for quite a long time, the current record being 119 minutes, just one minute shy of two hours. They also have sleep apnea, meaning that when they are asleep, they often stop breathing entirely for short spans of time. This has led many people who come upon a sleeping elephant seal to believe they're looking at a dead one!
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How The Elephant Seal Got Its Name |
When the Northern Elephant Seal is submerged, it's easy to see where they get their name. They look just like an elephant swimming through the water. Only the sexually mature males, however, have the long nose, or proboscis.
Loser males, or adult males who have lost a battle and are therefore not going to have a harem, often hang out on nearby beaches. On these "loser beaches", the males lay around sleeping and keeping cool, biding their time until they might get in on some of the harem action themselves. You'll often see younger males lounging and fighting amongst themselves in the surf.
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Cool In The Surf |
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Northern Elephant Seals: Bulls, Dominance & Harems
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Vocalization |
You'll often hear them long before you see them. The largest seal in the world, the elephant seal, hauls out along the California coastline in December in order to establish harems, or breeding groups.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Nose Vocalization |
One of the first steps in the establishment of a harem is to become a dominant or alpha male. In order to do this, you need to defend your turf against all comers - making it a safe, hospitable place that a female elephant seal, or cow, would want to birth and nurse her pup. The mature male, called a bull, will curl his long nose towards his throat and make a call, or vocalization, that states to the other males: "Come and get me!" This call can be heard for miles.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: The Warning Gape |
When a bull meets another male, they will size each other up. They take in their relative sizes: how long their noses are, and how big their teeth are. I call this yawning at each other a warning gape: the better to bite you with. If one male doesn't turn around and leave, then the dominance display moves to the next level and the males rear up and come together for a physical encounter, chest to chest.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Chest Shield |
The battle-worn males have a calloused chest, this chest shield develops as the bull grows, and helps protect them from injury when they fight with other males. Bulls often try to bite each other in the neck.
These physical encounters take a lot of energy on land, and rarely last more than about 10 seconds. However, some battles seem to go on and on. All male elephant seals are very conscious as to where they fall in the dominance hierarchy. And as the alpha male fasts for the months in which he reigns over his breeding harem, he loses weight, often as much as 25 pounds a day. This makes it more and more difficult for him to keep his position as the season progresses. By the end of the season, it turns into a relative free for all, where the less dominant males, who have been chilling on the loser beaches, have some chance of mating with the late-pupping cows.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Battered Noses |
Only mature males have the long elephant-like nose. Their nose is quite delicate and is considered a secondary sexual characteristic - the bigger the nose, the more mature and strong the male. That said, a bull's nose can be hurt in battle, but that doesn't stop the bull from becoming an alpha male with his own harem.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Dominance Displays |
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Northern Elephant Seal Bulls Lunge For The Throat |
Although the Northern Elephant Seal has no natural predators on land other than humans, the young pups often get caught in the middle of battles when an alpha male is protecting his harem from interlopers who hang around the boundaries of the harem, hoping for some action of their own. Every year, young pups are squashed by these big bulls.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Pups Get Caught In The Middle |
Below, you can see a big alpha male in the foreground, with all his cows and pups around him. You'll note that there are no other large bulls in his territory. He protects it, with violence if necessary. However, since the alpha bull is usually the biggest, strongest bull around, he often does not have to make much of an effort to deter other bulls. He can just rear up, give a warning gape, or move towards the invading male, and that male will turn tail and flop away. Not every male elephant seal is destined to have his own harem - only 5% of all males ever father pups and have a harem, and very rarely does an alpha male reign for more than one season.
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Northern Elephant Seal Bull: Alpha & Harem |
Check out our Año Nuevo Elephant Seal podcast - a video that features bull vocalization and dominance displays!
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Northern Elephant Seals: Pups
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A Very Pregnant Female Elephant Seal |
When a female Elephant Seal hauls out at Año Nuevo State Reserve in late December or early January, it certainly isn't easy. She's been at sea for many months and now she's very, very pregnant. And now, as she hauls her big body up onto the sand dunes, she has to run a gauntlet of eager males wanting to mate prematurely, and find a safe harem to birth her helpless little pup. She generally gives birth that first week, usually within five days of coming ashore.
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Births Are Followed By Shorebirds Eating Afterbirth |
Not many people ever witness an Elephant Seal birth. The cow only ever gives birth to only one dark brown-furred pup, which weighs between 60 and 90 pounds. The pup is born with his eyes open and can move soon after, snuggling at his mother to nurse. You can often tell where a birth has happened because lots of gulls will land nearby to eat the afterbirth.
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Cow & Pup Bond Vocally |
Soon after a cow gives birth, she will vocalize, or sing, to her new pup. The pup responds by yapping a bit and now the cow will be able to recognize her own pup amongst the others, should they be separated. That said, the cow will not leave her pup willingly for the entire time she nurses him - 28 days. However some pups wander off, or are separated when an alpha bull flops by. The male plays no role in the raises of young.
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Cow & Pup Bond For The Month |
The cow and pup will spend the first 28 days together. During this time, the cow will have no food or water. She will devote herself exclusively to nursing her newborn. It is very important that the pup gets to nurse for the full four weeks, for he was born without the protective blubber to keep him warm, nor does he know how to swim. He will need that milk.
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Pups Drink Rich Fatty Milk |
Although the pup is very small when he is born, he grows fast, sometimes gaining 10 pounds a day. Within a week, he has doubled his birth weight. The thick, oily milk he nurses is 55% butterfat, full of fat and protein. Soon he will be so fat that although he hasn't learned to swim, he cannot sink, either. By the end of the month, the cow may have dropped almost 50% of her body weight.
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Cows Bicker Over Harem Spots |
The cows of the harem bicker and nip at each other over the best spots in the harem, but they don't fight like the males do. She feeds her pup until he looks like a fat little sausage, having grown not much in length but decidedly in girth. She does not teach him anything, though. If she has not chosen a safe spot to nurse him, storm surge and flooding can drown the little pups before they are old enough to fend for themselves.
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28 Days Later, Weaned Pups Rival Mom |
After a month of nursing, the cow goes into estrus, or heat. She mates with the male during these last few days as she weans her pup. Then, she returns to the sea. By the time she weans her pup, he is almost as big as she is. These newly weaned pups are left to fend for themselves, and they produce a mighty racket in protest. They are now called weaners.
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Milk Thieves Become Super Weaners |
Some weaners don't much like being weaned. They become milk thieves, stealing milk from another cow and depriving her pup. Some weaners manage to nurse for ANOTHER 28 days, and become so fat, they are called super weaners. These guys can weigh up to 500lbs and are generally males. Funny that.
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Pup Mortality Is High |
Despite the fact that Elephant Seals have no real predators on land, pup mortality is still about 50%. Some pups are trampled to death by passing males; others wander off and lose their mothers. Coyotes help keep the beaches clean. Still more will be eaten once they enter the water, which is full of great white sharks, the primary predator of the Northern Elephant Seal. In fact, the great whites of the San Francisco Bay area are significantly larger than the ones around South Africa for this very reason - diet. Our great whites eat big, fat Elephant Seals, while the South African great whites feast on the much smaller Cape Fur Seal.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Mating
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Alpha Male Mating In The Harem |
The first males that haul out in December are often the alpha males from the previous season, followed by the other large males. The males fight each other until they have established a dominance hierarchy. The alpha males, or males that successfully defend their territory and establish harems, will mate with anything from 30 to 70 cows.
Cows begin breeding at around 5 years old, and have one pup a year for their entire lifetimes. Bulls cannot mate until they are 4, but really, they do not mate until they are old enough and large enough to establish themselves as dominant alphas, usually over 8 years old.
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Northern Elephant Seals Mating |
Only 5% of all male pups born will eventually become alpha males and mate with cows. And since there were less than 100 seals left less than a century ago, the several hundred thousand elephant seals today all are descendants of this small population. This has led to a genetic bottleneck - all the seals are vulnerable to the same factors. Also, since only the largest males are fathering all the pups, the elephant seals are growing larger as the generations pass.
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Beta Males Mate When They Can |
Alpha males will often allow Beta males - the mature males that lose to the Alphas but are still high up in the dominance hierarchy - to hang out on the edges of his harem. When any cow arrives, very pregnant and looking to join a stable harem, she must get past the Beta males. Any arriving male that wants to challenge the Alpha for his harem will have to run a gauntlet of beta males first. The bulls fast through the mating season, losing weight and fighting advantage as the season progresses. At the beginning of the season, you're likely to see one large bull surrounded by lots of cows and little pups, but by the end of the season, when the alpha has fasted for almost three months, you'll see many large bulls fighting to get a little mating in.
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Northern Elephant Seals: Weaners
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A Newly Weaned Pup Has Brown Coat |
After 28 days of nursing, Elephant Seal cows cut their pups off. These weaned pups are affectionately called weaners. Weaners whine a lot and healthy weaners look like overstuffed sausages.
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A Super Weaner |
Some weaners don't like being weaned. They steal milk from other nursing cows, and become gigantic weaners called super weaners. Super Weaners do not seem to have any distinct advantage either, though, although their numbers are too small for any real quantitative analysis.
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Weaners Have 50% Chance Of Survival |
If a weaned hasn't gotten its full four weeks of nursing, it has a lesser chance of survival compared to a fat, healthy weaned pup. Weaned pups do not stay close to the bull harems, but drag themselves off on their own and hang out in tidepools. By the end of mating season, the harems have disintegrated, and weaners are all over the place on the dunes.
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A Weaner Pod |
The weaners huddle together in groups called pods. They stay together on land for another two to three months, without food or water. Instead, they feed of their fat stores. At the beginning of the breeding season, the rookery is filled with the sounds of big bulls challenging each other, but by late February, the weaners whining has drown out all other noises. The weaners learn to swim in the tidepools and shallows before heading out to feed along the sheltered coastline.
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After A Molt, The Weaner Has A Silver Coat |
Newly weaned pups still have their scruffy brown coat, but before they head into the ocean, they molt and grow a beautiful silky silver coat. About fifty percent of them will last the year. One of the main challenges is leaving Año Nuevo point shallows, where great white sharks patrol, waiting for their yearly feast. A lucky weaner will return each year to the place it was born, the beachmasters of tomorrow.
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A Nice, Fat, Healthy Weaner |
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Northern Elephant Seals: Molting
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Molting Seals |
Okay, so this is perhaps the worst time to take pictures of the elephant seal. It is summer and boy does the beach stink - it's covered with pieces of dead skin, and really scruffy looking, grumpy seals. But you can't blame them, they're going through what is called a "catastrophic" molt.
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Molting Seal |
Once a year, the Northern Elephant Seals return to the beaches upon which they were born. For about a month, they stay on land, eating and drinking nothing. Instead, they spend that itchy, hot month shedding their entire protective fur coat and growing a silky new one for the coming year. During this molt, they do not go in the water, for they rely on their waterproof fur coat for protection from the cold Pacific waters.
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Molting Seal |
The reason that the molt is called "catastrophic" is because it is the complete loss and regrowth of the seal's fur, all at once. Other mammals, like humans for example, are continually losing hair and skin and regrowing it, instead of losing it all at once.
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Molting Seal Pup |
The different groups of Northern elephant seals molt at different times. The new pups molt in March before heading out into the ocean for the first time. From April to May, the female elephant seals and the juveniles come back to molt, followed by the sub-adult males in early summer. Then, in July and August, the beaches are covered with the long-nosed adult bulls.
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Año Nuevo State Reserve: It's For The Birds
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Northern Harrier |
From the spider webs I walk through along the nature trail, I know I am the first person out this morning. And if that hint had not been enough, then the bird life would be. I always pick the first tour of the day when I visit the park. I always try to head out before the crowds scare all the animals and birds far from the trail. Every time I visit, I see something new and different. More than one hundred different types of birds have been identified at Año Nuevo, from raptors to shore birds, and everything in between.
Birds Of Prey
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White-Tailed Kite |
Walking out across the great big field near the nature trail entrance, you'll always see raptors hunting. There's a particular female harrier that has lost all fear of humans. She swoops down close as you walk along. You're also likely to see white-tailed kites perched along the windbreaks of Monterey cypress planted after the Second World War. And like everywhere else in California, there are always turkey vultures.
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Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) |
Other Birds
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California Quail (Callipepla californica) |
Early in the morning is the best time to see California Quail. Males and females like to chase each other down the nature trails, but upon seeing humans, they dive into the dense underbrush and you aren't as likely to see them for the rest of the day.
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White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) |
All manner of what the Africans refer to as LBJ's - Little Brown Jobs - also live in the fields and chaparral, although we generally think of these as songbirds, or just plain birds.
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American Robin (Turdus migratorius) |
Chaparral means a habitat along a shrubby coastal area that has hot dry summers and mild, rainy winters. It has tall, dense shrubs and some dispersed scrub oak. The word chaparral comes from "chaparro," which means scrub oak in Spanish.
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Año Nuevo State Reserve: Land Critters
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Old Irrigation Pond |
At one time, the land that now makes up the Año Nuevo State Reserve was home to many California grizzlies. These bears, the only land-based predator of the Northern Elephant Seal other than man, have been extinct since 1922.
Nowadays, there are many land-based critters living in the reserve from reptiles to mountain lions and mule deer.
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Mule Deer |
Many of the land critters at the reserve are nocturnal, although the park closes at sunset. In the hills above the point, you'll find mountain lions, whereas you'll find bobcat and coyote tracks up and down the dunes. I've walked along the nature trails along the point and had mule deer walk right in front of me.
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Pacific Chorus Frog, Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla) |
The reserve is also home to quite a few endangered species. Let's start with the endangered reptile species like the San Francisco Garter Snake and the California red-legged frog. There are also endangered birds that migrate and nest in the area.
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Snail |
And then there are the endangered marine species like the Steller sea lion, the Southern Sea Otter, and the Great White Shark, to name a few.
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February 17, 2006
72 Hours In New Orleans
New Orleans is a magical place. When I last visited in March of 2005, prior to hurricane season, the locals were just recovering from Mardi Gras. Many people had told us their opinions of the city - that it was dirty, dangerous, and crazy. In fact, not a soul we spoke to had nice things to say about New Orleans.
That didn't stop us from planning a nice weekend in the area before I had to get down to work. Contrary to the viewpoints of our friends, we found New Orleans to be a great place to visit. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve celebrated everything from jazz to a bayou boardwalk. People were friendly, the food was fantastic and the nightlife was vastly amusing. I came home with lots of bead necklaces, although I'm glad to say I didn't have to flash anyone to get them. Clearly, I'm cute enough not to have to :P
Here's a great sample itinerary for those planning to visit the New Orleans area.
Friday
Hike Barataria Preserve
Visit Lafitte for a Meal
Court of Two Sisters for dinner
Nightlife on Bourbon Street
PHOTOS: Gators * Raccoons and Squirrels * Snakes * Turtles * Frogs * Birds * Lizards * Nutria * Plants & Paths * Bugs
Saturday
Beignets at Cafe du Monde
French Market 10am+
French Quarter Shopping
Dinner at Bourbon House
PHOTOS: Cafe du Monde * French Quarter * The French Market * Window Shopping * Bourbon Street Nightlife * Great Food
Sunday
Steamboat on Mississippi to the Zoo
Garden District Walking Tour
Dinner at Cafe Sbisa's
PHOTOS: Jazz in Jackson Square * People * Along the Mississippi River
Despite the devastation brought about by Katrina, many of these businesses are reopening. It's important that people visit and support these places if they are to make a recovery - both culturally and financially. Many places, like Cafe du Monde, are already bouncing back. The Audubon Zoo is now opened on weekends, at least, for the mean time. Just this week, New Orleans has kicked off a scaled back Mardi Gras festival.
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February 16, 2006
African Field Notes: The Baboon
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Baboons are found in surprisingly varied habitats and are extremely adaptable. All they need is a water source and a safe sleeping place, such as a tall tree or a cliff face.
When water is readily available, baboons drink every day or two, but they can survive for long periods by licking the night dew from their fur.
They spend a lot of time grooming each other while the juveniles play – pick off bugs and eat them. Yum!
One interesting phenomena is that you often find impala and baboons coexisting. The reason for this is unclear. Baboons are more vigilant – baboons forage for seeds on the ground and the impala nibble on new shoots on the bushes.
Sometimes, the male baboons will eat young impala. The impala drop their young after the first rains and there were large numbers of very young calves around. The baboons have been known to grab the baby impala and violently eat them, yet the impala herd does not show any distress over this. Baboons are generally messy feeders and drop a lot of food onto the ground from trees which the impalas feed on.
Latin Genus: Papio
A Group Is Called: A Troop (More Group Names At: Critter Collectives)
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February 15, 2006
African Field Notes: The Greater Kudu
The Greater Kudu is perhaps my favorite kind of African antelope. You'll often see their horns used as decoration in game lodges, but the real live thing is a beautiful member of the African animal kingdom.
The Kudu is rather large, with very distinctive spiral horns, that can grow as long as 72 inches, making 2 1/2 graceful twists. They have brown fur with stripes and spots.
Kudu live in the woodland bushveld. They eat grasses and leaves.
Kudu also are a very tasty game meat, often found in biltong, a South African dried meat snack.
Another weird fact: There's a rather disturbing sport in Africa called Kudu Dung Spitting, which sounds exactly like it is...
Latin Name: Tragelaphus strepsiceros
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
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African Field Notes: The African Elephant
The African Elephant is the heaviest, largest land mammal in the world. Some adults weigh more than 14,000 lbs & their brains are 3-4x the weight of the human brain.
Elephants have lots of blood vessels in their ears. They flap their ears and their blood pumps through, cooling and then circulates back to the rest of the body. This is important because elephants don’t sweat. If they get overheated and cannot find water, they can stick their trunk down into their own stomach to get a bit of water to spray over their back.
The elephant's trunk has approx 150,000 muscles, and its used as a nose, arm and hand. Babies don’t know how to use trunk when they are born, instead they drink with mouth. Sometimes they just wiggle their trunks or suck on them like a baby would on a thumb.
Family units are led by the oldest female, who is often 40 or 50 years old, while males visit only for mating. It takes almost two years got a baby elephant to gestate – the longest of all land mammals. When an elephant is about to give birth, other female elephants may act as a midwife and comfort the expectant mother.
They communicate using something called infrasonic sounds, which are very low noises that can be heard for miles. There have also been instances of mimicry – like an elephant mimicking the noises of a truck.
Elephants also communicate thru scent – giving off smells when ready to mate, when they’re sick or about to give birth but what is most interesting is how they show empathy for each other. Elephants are known to care for others in their family. They’ll often slow down or help physically support an ailing fellow, even bringing food if they cant for themselves.
Elephants grieve, sometimes for months – especially youngsters who lose their mothers. When an elephant dies, it is not just abandoned. The family unit stays with the corpse, sometimes for days. Then, after a while, one by one they touch the body and turn away. Sometimes they will even cover the body with brush and dirt. Elephants ignore the bones of other creatures, but if they come upon elephant bones, even years later, they will stroke them, and then sometimes scatter them.
Latin Genus: Loxodonta
A Group Is Called: A Parade (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Little Big Things: The Discovery of the Pygmy Elephant
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: African Elephant
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African Field Notes: The Cheetah
Cheetahs can sprint up to 75mph, even turning in mid-air to continue pursuit of prey.
But these sprints often tire them. Cheetahs often lose their kills to other predators if they do not eat quickly. It's also very difficult to feed their young. Cheetahs are daytime hunters, likely because many of the predators that would steal their kills are noctural hunters.
This cheetah spent hours stalking this impala. I know because we watched it happen. After catching the antelope, the cheetah was so exhausted, it took an exceptionally long time for the impala to die. The cheetah just help onto its neck while the impala gasped, and then finally died. It was a very primal experience, not particularly pleasant, but necessary.
Cheetahs are not a threat to humans. In fact, at one time, they were used as pets.
Latin Name: Acinonyx jubatus
A Group Is Called: A Coalition (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
The Asian Cheetah
He Wants To See The Cheetahs
Posted by sorsha at 9:46 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Waterbuck
It's easy to identify a waterbuck from behind - it's got a big white ring or target, on its backside.
The waterbuck has a long-haired, often shaggy brown-gray coat that emits a smelly, greasy secretion thought to be for waterproofing.The meat of older waterbuck takes on an unpleasant odor from the waterproofing secretions, prompting predators to choose other prey.
A male waterbuck may have a harem of cows. Other males will challenge him for his mating rights. Below we have a challenge to a male with the harem in the picture below.
Latin Name: Kobus ellipsiprymnus
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: Birds
There are some more recent pictures of birds from our trip to Kenya and South Africa in the Special Assignment: Around The World In 40 Days.
Giant flocks of flamingos migrate to southern African. You'll see them hanging out in the marshes near Cape Town. They are pink because of their diet, and young are born like ugly gray fuzzy featherless turkeys.
Ostriches can run quite fast, and like to hiss. They have a wicked back claw that can eviscerate a predator. You'll often see farms of ostriches, as the steaks make good eating. You can often buy ostrich biltong (dried meat snack) from the locals.
The spoonbill has a very unique beak that looks like a wooden spoon. You'll see the spoonbill at waterholes. Both sexes share incubation and feeding the young.
One easy way to find a kill site is to follow the vultures. You'll see them circling a kill site, and hanging out in the trees, waiting for the opportunity to partake in a meal themselves.
The Ground Hornbill looks like a large black and red turkey. They are endangered.
There are a variety of colorful birds in Africa. The bee-eaters are very pretty, feasting on dragonflies and often living near water.
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
The Reluctant Bird Buff (Avian Admirer?)
Birds As Carriers: From Avian Flu to Toxic Poop
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African Field Notes: The Warthog
Warthogs are fun to watch. Disney's Pumba is really quite like the warthogs of the wild - skitish and very round. And while its difficult to call them nice looking, they have a sort of ugly charm, you know?
When scared, their tail sticks up straight in the air like an antennae as they run away. When they run, they sortof prance along on very delicate hooves. They are a favorite food of the leopard.
Female warthogs only have four teats, so litter sizes usually are confined to four young. Each piglet has its "own" teat and suckles exclusively from it. Even if one piglet dies, the others do not suckle from the available teat.
Latin Name: Phacochoerus africanus
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: Warthogs
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African Field Notes: The Leopard
The leopard is the most elusive of the Big Five, those being the most dangerous animals to hunt in Africa. The Big Five are: the lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros.
Leopards love to eat warthogs but are known to eat all sorts of other animals. They have incredible strength. A leopard can climb as high as 50 feet up a tree holding a dead animal in its mouth, even one larger and heavier than itself! 
They often stash food up high so other predators like lions or hyenas can’t get it and steal it from them. Then they can return and eat more later.
I believe that I've read somewhere that the leopard's spots are unique, much like the stripes of a zebra.
Your best bet for seeing a leopard is in a tree, lounging during the day, waiting for the hunt at night
Latin Name: Panthera pardus
A Group Is Called: A Leap (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:43 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Lion
Lions are very social creatures. They live in prides and often act like large housecats - sleeping, napping, and resting for most of the time. They also have short bursts of activity for hunting and playing.
South African male lions have manes, unlike their Kenyan relatives, the Tsavo lions, which are maneless.
Males do less hunting, but they guard the pride’s territory. Males battle for dominance in the pride. When males take over a pride, they usually kill the cubs. The females come into estrus and the new males sire other cubs. Males also guard the cubs while the lionesses are hunting, and they make sure the cubs get enough food. Cubs are taken care of by the whole pride – nursing from any of the mothers.
Lions kill be knocking down their prey and going for the throat. Being smaller, faster, lighter and more agile than males, the female lion does most of the hunting. They hunt in a coordinated fashion. Smaller females chase the prey towards the center. The larger and heavier lionesses ambush or capture the prey.
Lions digest their food quickly, which allows them to return soon for a second helping after gorging themselves. You’ll often see them with HUGE stomachs, just laying around a kill.
Lions can often survive in extreme drought conditions, eating tsama melons for moisture in the desert.
Because they often take over kills made by hyenas, cheetahs and leopards, scavenged food provides more than 50 percent of their diets in areas like the Serengeti plains.
Latin Name: Panthera leo
A Group Is Called: A Pride (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Francisco Zoo - Adult Male Lion
Bats In The Belfry & Lions In The Tower
Canis Africanus
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African Field Notes: The Spotted Hyena
Hyenas have some of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. With their powerful teeth and jaws and efficient digestion, the spotted hyena can utilize virtually everything on a carcass except the rumen contents and horns. The parts they cannot eat are regurgitated. Even desiccated carcasses yield protein and minerals during lean times. Because they eat bones, the hyena leaves behind white droppings.
Hyenas are just as dangerous as a lion – it’s a good idea to keep arms in the car when they're around. Lions and hyenas have a long-standing dislike of each other. They steal each other's kills, and attack their young but don't eat them. There have been cases of packs of hyenas attacking lone lions, and of lions specifically hunting down a hyena den and killing the cubs, but not for food.
A hyena clan is a stable community of related females, among which unrelated males reside for varying periods. The highest-ranking females and her descendants are dominant over all other animals. Female hyenas are bigger than the males and dominate them. Cubs are raised in communal dens and males play no parental role, with only a privileged few permitted anywhere near dens.
A pregnant hyena will find a secluded burrow to have her young in. Usually twins are born in a burrow after a long, 4 month gestation period. Young are born with incisors and canines present, eyes open. Beginning only hours after birth, siblings of like gender battle for dominance, using the neck biting and shaking. The one that wins keeps the other from nursing until it weakens and dies. Two to six weeks after whelping, young are transported to the communal den. Young depend entirely on milk for about 8 months and are not weaned until 12 to 16 months old.
Latin Name: Crocuta crocuta
A Group Is Called: A Cackle (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Posted by sorsha at 9:42 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Crocodile
In Africa, you need to tread lightly near rivers and streams. Otherwise, you might find yourself being a meal for a 20 ft long croc! You will often find hippos and smaller crocs cohabiting, along with birds and other marine animals.
Crocs are ambush predators. There's a really famous 6 meter croc that lives in Burundi named Gustave, thought to be the largest croc in Africa.
Mama crocs build nests and then guard the eggs from predators. When the babies are ready to hatch, they make grunting or barking noises from inside the egg, and use a short little tooth on the end of their snouts called an “egg tooth” to start breaking out of the leathery shell. Some croc moms even help by gently biting the egg to open it up more easily.
After the young have hatched, the mom carries them to the water in her mouth then guards them for most of the first year of their lives. Sometimes the hatchlings get to ride on her back, too. She will threaten or attack any predator that lurks too close, and in some species she will call the hatchlings to swim into her mouth for protection.
All crocs store fat in their tails, so they can go for quite a while without eating if necessary—as long as two years for some big adults!
Latin Family: Crocodylidae
A Group Is Called: A Congregation (More At: Critter Collectives)
Check out our Safari South Africa podcast - an audio program and a video that features this animal!
Also on Perlgurl.Org:
Photos: San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park: Crocodiles
Living With Predators - Crocs
Posted by sorsha at 9:41 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
African Field Notes: The Giraffe
Giraffes are the tallest land mammal, adults growing up to about 18 ft tall.
Very thick drool and a long tongue almost 2 feet long help them to eat acacia trees with wicked thorns. The drool allows them to swallow the thorns without mesing up their digestive systems.
Giraffe's have a special circulatory system. They have very