The Piedras Blancas elephant seal breeding season hasofficially started
The air crackled with excitement all week. Docents
messaged each other, watching over a pregnant seal squirming on the beach. Soon,
soon, the first pup would arrive.
Tis the season! After a long day on Thursday, December
12, Gingerbread was born overnight. Sex undetermined, but mother and pup are
resting well.
FES Docent Jim Mentgen was the first to see and
photograph the pup, so it was his privilege to name the pup. Gingerbread has
the whiff of the season, along with a playful image of sugarplums dancing in
our heads. Nineteen other docents shared honors for guessing the date of the
first pup arrival. It’s an informal lottery among FES docents.
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| Gingerbread greets his mother. |
Welcome, mothers and pups!
Gingerbread is the first of over 5,000 pups that will
be born between now and February along the beaches of the Piedras Blancas
rookery. The rookery includes the boardwalks of the viewpoint, and extends from
north at the light station to about a mile south of the viewpoint.
Pregnant females will continue to arrive, one by one.
They settle on the beach for a few days and then give birth to their pups.
This is the time of year when visitors may witness a
pup being born. Although many pups, like Gingerbread, are born at night, pups
can be born at any time. It’s a breathtaking experience for anyone. It never
gets old for experienced docents, and it’s thrilling for visitors who are
fortunate to be in place when a pup is born. An experience to take home and
tell their friends!
Looking through my records last week, I found that the
first time I saw a birth was in 2009. Every birth is unique, always exciting.
When will a pup be born?
It’s hard to predict – experienced docents held their
breath all day Thursday, and the pup was born later. Look for a female seal
digging out a “saddle” by tossing a lot of sand on both sides. That sometimes
indicates that she will soon give birth.
Or not. Nothing is certain in wildlife viewing. As
soon as you’re paying attention to one seal, another down the beach will squirt
out a pup.
Bring a chair. Be patient. The weather is warm and
pleasant. No restrooms at the viewpoint, but at the Hearst Memorial Beach at
San Simeon Cove. Plan to take a break. The Monterey Bay National Marine
Sanctuary Discovery Center at the cove is now open, 10 am – 4 pm, Thursday through
Sunday. New interactive exhibits, listen to whale sounds and view live plankton
collected from the San Simeon Pier. Get the full coastal experience!
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| A gull hangs around a nursing pup to steal milk. |
Gull announcements
As with other placental mammals, a birth is followed
by the afterbirth, the placenta. In the case of elephant seals, gulls screetch
and swoop around to consume the afterbirth. They are the beach clean-up crew.
It feels anticlimactic, like you have missed the Main
Event, but follow the gulls to see the newborn and mother make their first
barks and sniffs to each other.
Pups and their mothers recognize each other by their
vocalizations and their scent. That gets established within the first couple of
days of life. It’s important, because a pup separated from its mother may
starve and die. Maternal separation is the most common cause of pup death.
While all pups are vulnerable, most pups nurse on more
than one mother at some time. Early in the season, only a few mothers, well
separated, occupy the beach. Later, when the beach is crowded with mothers and
pups, some mothers may nurse more than one pup.
Not every pup survives, although over 90 percent of
the pups at Piedras Blancas do. A mother whose pup dies may let other pups
nurse, or may adopt another pup. Or she may stay a few days and leave. Whether
she mates or not is not yet established.
With so many mothers and pups on the beach, any mother
and pup may get confused.
One pup per mother
Gingerbread is the standard-issue pup. He – or she,
hard to tell from a distance – is about three feet long and weighs about 75
pounds. No multiple births. Mothers don’t eat during the month they spend
nursing. They don’t have enough blubber reserves to nurse more than one.
During that month, the pup gains weight rapidly, up to
about 300 pounds. The mothers stay with the pup the entire time. They don’t
leave the pup to feed in the ocean, so they lose a lot of weight, about a third
of their body weight.
Gingerbread’s mother is nice and fat. She’ll need it.
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| Pus can't swim well, so they need to sstay above the high tide line. |
Above high tide line
Gingerbread is in a good position on the beach, above
high tide line. That’s an important consideration, because King Tides, the
highest tides of the year, will return January 2 and 3, and there will be other
high tides. Gingerbread’s timing is good, with three weeks to nurse and gain
blubber before the tide comes crashing up the beach again.
Gingerbread can’t swim much yet. Without blubber to
stay warm, and able only to paddle a little in the water, pups can drown.
Gingerbread’s mother appears to be mature, probably an
experienced mother who has raised other pups. She may even be among the
Supermoms, one of the six percent of the females
who eventually give birth to 10 or more pups during their lifetimes. Supermoms
account for more than half (55 percent) of the total pups born. Supermoms live
longer, breed more frequently, and raise bigger pups.
Bernie LeBoeuf, now professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, led a research team that identified Supermoms in a 2019 scientific paper.
Gingerbread’s mother chose a nice dry spot on the
south beach. Mothers who give birth at low tide don’t realize that their pups
may be at risk later, when the tide comes in. Most of the north beach at the
Piedras Blancas viewpoint was inundated with waves during December’s King Tide.
Some pups born in the few areas behind rocks could be safe, but any born on the
open sand may be washed away.
Share King Tide photos
You can take photos and submit them to the California
King Tides Project. Think about taking photos in areas that
are subject to flooding and erosion, and of places where high water levels can
be gauged against familiar landmarks such as cliffs, rocks, roads, buildings,
bridge supports, sea walls, staircases, and piers.
Taking and sharing photos documents the changes in
ocean level and how those changes are affecting the coastline.
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.