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March 5, 2007

Ele-Facts: Flexible Fins & Bendable Backbones

Despite looking rather cumbersome on land, elephant seals are quite flexible. The flexible spine and flippers of an elephant seal all it to live both on land and in the sea.


Bendable Backbones
Elephant seals are not especially agile on land, but in water, few creatures can compare. Their flexible backbones allow them to weave through the water at lightning speeds to catch prey and avoid predators.

When they haul out on beaches to mate and to molt, elephant seals haul their immense bodies across the sand using an undulating flop that requires a lot of back strength. When the big bulls fight for dominance, they stand on their front flippers and arch their backs in order to overpower each other.

In fact, an elephant seal can reach any part of its body with its front flippers and can even touch its nose to its tail. They're that flexible!


Flexible Flippers

Elephant seals have two webbed front flippers and two webbed back flippers. Their back flippers are relatively large but not as flexible as their smaller front flippers, which they can rotate and curl. Their front flippers even have nails.

Seals use their flippers for a variety of purposes. In the sea, they use their front flippers to navigate and their back flippers to propel them through the water. On land, they drag their back flippers but use their front flippers for a variety of things like:

To Move
Elephant seals drag themselves around on land, flopping along with the help of their front flippers. You'll see the alpha males use their front flippers alot to keep their heads up, vigilantly watching over their harems.



To Scratch
They've got flexible webbed digits with nails on their front flippers and with the help of their bendable spines, they can scratch anywhere!


To Flip Sand
Scientists aren't sure why the elephant seals flip sand on themselves. Perhaps to cool off, or to avoid sunburn, or because of some parasite. They do it day and night, rain or shine, young or old.


To Hold
Males will often hold the female down while they mate. They do this by biting the female's neck, laying on top of her, and holding her with their front flipper. I've also heard that dominant males may do this as a sign of protection, even going so far as to escort a female of a harem to the waterline after mating.

Posted by sorsha at March 5, 2007 1:33 PM