Bulls ready to roar

Biggest bulls return for the breeding season

Mature bull elephant seals, foraging at sea for the past ten or twelve weeks, will start arriving at Piedras Blancas any day. They are at their biggest and loudest now. They are ready for action. The bulls will be on the beach until March. Great holiday viewing for visitors!

They are preparing for the breeding season, the high point of the year. The bulls are ready for battle when they arrive. They are in prime condition, with enough blubber to carry them through. They may not eat again until March, as long as 120 days.

This mature bull annunces his arrival on the beach at Piedras Blancas.

Arrival

The first bull usually arrives around Thanksgiving. It may look quiet at first.

Look for a big seal surfing in, arising from the waves as a monster from the deep. After a few galumphs up the beach, he stops. Without the buoyancy of water supporting all that blubber, he feels his full weight under gravity. He’s making the transition from life underwater to life on land.

Juvenile seals are still on the beach, lingering from their fall haul-out. They’ll soon get the message: It’s time for the Big Boys to take over. Some may find places on the beach to continue resting for a while. They may benefit from observing the adult social order. In a few years, they will be part of it.

Preparing for breeding season

The bulls have been feeding on fish and squid along North America’s continental shelf since August. They gained as much as 28 pounds a day. Leaving their feeding grounds, the bulls stopped eating and swam directly from as far north as the Aleutian Islands to return to southern beaches.

This is the long fast of their year. They can’t leave the beach to feed. The good feeding areas are hundreds of miles north. Besides, they need to stay on the beach to defend a harem until the females are ready to breed, a month after they give birth. That can extend into March, as females give birth in January and February.

It’s all worth it to them. Beachmasters, 12 or 13 years old, have only one or two good years at the top. They fight to take advantage of their power.

This younger bull is wiling to challenge older bulls for dominance.

Dominance hierarchy

On the beach, even before females arrive in December, they threaten and fight each other to establish the beach dominance hierarchy. Although threats and fighting establish the dominance hierarchy, dominance actually helps reduce conflict in the rookery. Bulls recognize each other’s call, and remember who won. They don’t need to fight again.

Viewers can see the dominance hierarchy acting out on the sand. One bull vocalizes a deep, grunting threat to another bull. All the bulls hear, and start clearing away, which is called displacement. One bull may respond by calling back, or by raising up and coming across the beach for the fight.

That’s when the titans clash. Chest to chest, biting with those big, two-inch, canines. The chest shield, torn and battered, drips blood. No quarter is given.

Most fights are brief, less than a minute, but some last half an hour, exhausting both fighters. They may cross the sand and continue the fight into the water.

The fight ends when one gives up and retreats. The winner my continue chasing him, biting his back. Take that!

This senior bull -- note the long proboscis, with a crease -- has seen years of breeding seasons.

Females soon follow

A solitary female or two may arrive in late November, but they will certainly be on the beach in December. They give birth within a few days of arriving on the beach. Look for the first pup in mid- to late-December.

That’s when the important part of the dominance hierarchy kicks in. Bulls guard their harems of females as best they can. It’s always imperfect, with subdominant bulls constantly challenging the beachmaster’s top position, or simply trying to get away with mating with a female on the edges of the harem.

Only the dominant bulls, the beachmasters, will get to breed freely, without threat by more dominant bulls. By the peak of the breeding season in January and February, beachmasters will reign over harems of 30-40 females on Central Coast beaches.

King Tides

Winter brings the highest tides of the year to the West Coast, King Tides. They are predictable, happening when the sun, moon, and Earth align to exert the greatest gravitational pull on the ocean. This year they will occur on the mornings of November 6, December 4-6, and January 2-3.

High tides may affect pups born within that high tide zone. Females who choose higher ground are more likely to raise their pups successfully to weaning. The most dominant bulls also stake their claim over these sections of beach.

California Coastal Commission invites the public to submit photos that illustrate how far the water 

First Bull Arrival contest

Friends of the Elephant Seal holds a contest every year, to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season. Enter the First Bull contest here!

The winner gets an FES baseball cap, and praise from FES members and elephant seal admirers. Which is the main point, and the most fun!

Visiting the Viewpoint

A visit to see the elephant seals is good holiday entertainment. Look for long noses and big pink chest shields on massive bodies. The nose, technically proboscis, and chest shield continue to grow throughout the seal’s life. Bigger is older.

Friends of the Elephant Seal docents in blue jackets are available every day to answer questions.

Check the live webcam to see what’s happening on the beach. Highway 1 remains closed to the north, at Lucia Lodge, due to the Regent Slide between the lodge and Esalen Institute.

Bring your camera.  Always open, always free. The viewpoint is located within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, federally protected and held in trust for the world.