Weaning

Pups fill the beach

All stages: newborn, nursing, and weaned

There’s a lot to see at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint in January and February, the breeding season. Pregnant females arrive at the Piedras Blancas viewpoint beaches daily. They join the mothers already there, nursing the pups born in the past month. The females congregate in groups, harems, presided over by a beachmaster, who is vigilant about defending his rights. Other bulls challenge him. Lots of activity, constant movement and drama.

Two male elephant seal take the battle into the ocean

 at Piedras Blancas tookery. The one on the right began the fight with bleeding wounds on his chest shield. 

Pups

The first ones born, in December, are already being weaned, and their mothers leave on their short migration. Gingerbread, the first pup born December 12, is a fat weanling.

Weaned pups congregate in groups called pods, out of the main breeding areas, along the base of the cliffs. Look for rotund seals shedding black fur. They shed the black coat they were born with after they are weaned. They grow their first countershaded coat, darker brown on the back and lighter on the belly.

As the mothers wean their pups, after nursing for about a month, they come into estrus, heat, and are receptive to breeding. That’s when the beachmaster’s wait, since arriving on the beach in November or December, is rewarded.

This mother is ready to wean her pup.

Females mate with bulls before they leave the beach. Mating can be noisy, with the female barking and flapping around. Other bulls may take interest and chase the bull attempting to breed. Fights break out. One vicious battle last weekend went from beach to the ocean, with both bulls eventually returning to the beach, although with more separation between them.

The seals mate on the beach, X-rated. The most dominant bulls get to breed, but they are regularly challenged by other bulls. That’s when they may come to battle.

Beachmasters at the top

They fight for dominance. The most dominant bulls, the beachmasters, have breeding rights with the females, usually a harem of about 30 at Piedras Blancas. Researchers estimate that only about one percent of males born ever get to breed. So there’s a lot at stake.

Each bull has a unique call. Bulls recognize each other by call much more readily than by sight.

Bulls approaching one another bellow to show the other who they are. If dominance has been

established, watch one bull back away. If the bulls are strangers they will continue to

approach. They may rear up to show their size, but if neither backs off it will get physical until dominance is determined.

That helps them avoid battling bulls they have fought before. Once a match is settled, the bulls accept that result and avoid each other in future. If they’ve fought before, no need to fight again. They establish themselves in the dominance hierarchy. A bull may remember as many as 50 opponents. They can remember who beat who for years.

Dominance interactions are clear to see from the bluff. The dominance hierarchy actually helps reduce conflict on the beach, by settling conflicts before they come to a fight. One bull challenges another, and one of them backs down.

Fighting uses a lot of energy. These seals need to be able to survive, and fight and mate, for 100 days or longer, relying only on their blubber, without food. Having a lot of blubber helps, but eventually any seal will be depleted. Conserving energy extends the range of a seal’s vitality during the breeding season.

Sneaking into the harem

It’s a tough time for the bulls. Dominant beachmasters have to be vigilant. Look for “sneaker” bulls, who hang around the fringes of the harem. They seem to camouflage themselves among the mothers, who are busy with their pups. They are attuned to the beachmaster, waiting for his attention to be diverted by a direct challenge. As he galumphs across the beach in battle, the sneaker bull moves forward among the females and tries to mate.

Females typically bellow and complain, but the beachmaster may be too deeply involved in the battle to respond. 

This female looks back at the bull who is approaching her. 

Less dominant bulls may leave the breeding beach entirely. In past years, they have come to rest on other local beaches, but this year some are taking refuge on the north beach at the rookery. It’s been fully inundated during high tides, so few pups are born there. It’s a beach these defeated bulls can have to themselves. When a beachmaster is defeated, he loses all status, and drops to the bottom of the hierarchy.

Pups carry on

In the midst of this conflict, pups need to nurse to gain weight and grow. They may get separated from their mothers. They may starve if they can’t find each other and reunite. Pups separated from their mothers may find another mother willing to let them nurse. About 80 percent of pups nurse on more than one mother before they are weaned.

Last weekend, we watched one pup search for his mother, dragging himself along the beach. One mother turned and bit him on the head, then the body, as he squealed in fright and pain. He moved on, and another mother bit him. He called and called, and eventually a female recognized his bark, and came thundering up the beach. They touched noses and settled down together.

The connection seemed a bit uncertain, and those of us watching hoped that the pair would stay together.

One pup at a time

Elephant seal mothers have only a single pup. Since they don’t eat while they are nursing, they don’t have adequate reserves to feed multiple pups. It’s common for pups to nurse on mothers other than their own, though. Some mothers tolerate it better than others. Often mothers have several pups around them. Only one is hers.

She can't be mother to both, but she seems accepting. 

Mothers whose pups don’t survive may adopt a pup, or at least be willing to let a hungry one nurse. The experience may help inexperienced mothers become better mothers.

Not all pups survive, and mothers sometimes fight over a pup. Mothers without a living pup still have milk, so there’s a net surplus of milk on the beach. The milk changes as the pup develops, so mothers and orphan pups may be mismatched. Pups and mothers need to find each other despite the confusion.

Drama on the beach

Although conflict and chaos churn across the beach, the seals find enough peace to accomplish their birth and mating season. It’s a time of unfolding drama, from one crisis to the next.

One foggy morning, I met up with a Facebook photography group, The Nature Photography Group of the Central Coast, to learn how to take better photos and provide the photographers with pointers about what the seals are doing. Check out their Facebook page for more photos.

Several visitors from the Morro Bay Bird Festival also visited the bluff. One pointed out an Ancient Murrelet floating over and under the waves, so named for the white feathers circling its head, like the laurel wreath of ancient Roman statemen. This tiny bird dives underwater to catch fish.

Always something new to see along the coast, part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Take lots of pictures, and bring home those stories to tell.

Christine Heinrichs is the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council SLO At-Large member. Her elephant seal column won first place from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 2024. Follow her on Facebook, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Substack.