Silent presence reduces harassment

Docents play an important role in buffering the space between humans and seals.

Biologist Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez usually studies marine mammal behavior, but lately he's been watching other creatures: human tourists.

While on sabbatical in New Zealand, the Western Washington University scientist monitored visitors to a popular waterfall where groups of fur seal pups rest and play. Overenthusiastic tourists often get too close to the seals, try to touch them, or throw food or objects to encourage them to play and move about.

As the seal pups flee, they are sometimes injured or, worse, trampled to death. But when Acevedo-Gutiérrez's research assistant, his wife, sat on a nearby rock wearing an official-looking orange vest, the number of pestering groups of tourists dropped from 38 percent to 13 percent, even though she didn't tell them what to do.

Pup rescue!

We rescued our first elephant seal pup yesterday. The pup was beached at Northpoint, at the north end of Morro Bay. That section of beach isn’t heavily used. There’s a small parking lot and perhaps half a dozen people walking on the beach, several with dogs.

It was a sunny, mild day. A light breeze blew the heat off our arms.

He was lying quietly on the beach 100 yards or so from the stairs leading down to the beach. He was thin, not a chubby round weaner, but the kind with a thin, tapering body. These weaners, photographed last year at Piedras Blancas, show the comparison. He had been unresponsive to the first rescuers on the scene who assessed his condition and made the decision to rescue him. When we got down on the beach with the animal carrier, he raised his head and opened his mouth to us. His teeth had barely erupted. I saw lower canines and a couple of small teeth farther back in the jaw. He didn’t have any wounds, but a small patch of tar on his shoulder.

The senior rescuer wrapped a towel around the seal’s head, burrito-wrap style, and the other resucer and I lifted and shoved him into the carrier. I didn’t take time to reflect on what his skin felt like. Not rough, not soft. Just skin with short hair.

He was mostly molted but retained some baby black coat on his flippers and fins.

He responded to our presence by raising his head in a threat, but didn’t follow through. He was, as far as a seal can be, cooperative.

Carrying the animal carrier up the steps was hard. Good thing we had four of us, including my strong husband, Gordon. We stopped twice on our way up to catch our breath. The entire carrier and animal weighed 39 kg. The pup weighed 26.5 kg.

Pups look cute, with their large dark eyes, and their relaxed behavior appears playful. When I got close to this animal, even though he was lethargic, I felt a rush of wild power. It was different from the energy of large domestic animals like horses and cows. His energy had a strong power of ocean wind and current.

I probably won’t call them ‘cute’ again.

We unloaded him and his carrier at the center. We weighed him and his carrier, then put him in a cage. We brought the carrier into the cage and then tipped it up to let him slide out. The concrete looks hard, but it’s no worse than lying on the hard packed sand, which he’s accustomed to. We set up his chart, named him Topsy, and started treatment for starvation. He got electrolytes via tube. He tolerated it well, not putting up much resistance. He was scheduled for a formula feeding at 8 pm. I'll lfollow his progress and track it here.

Weaners rule!

Most of the mothers are gone, leaving their weaned pups to manage on the beach. They are doing fine, as these fat youngsters show.

These active ones practice swimming in the pool under the culvert. I like to think that this water is relatively clean. It's runoff from the ranchland across the road. There's no chemical fertilizer or pesticides used there, it's open land. I hardly ever even see cows on it.

That beachmaster male keeps a close eye on the females that remain. They'll be leaving soon. This female decided it was time for her to leave, creating excitement among the subdominant bulls that were keeping their distance from the beachmaster. He fought with a few, which made the rest retreat.

He followed her down to the water's edge to mate with her. I like to think that being close to the water helped her escape the attentions of the other males.

The California Report interviewed an elephant seal docent at Pescadero for its Giving State series on volunteers.

First molt

All elephant seal pups are born with black coats, slightly curly. That's replaced in their first molt, after they are weaned. They get a brown and tan coat, more like the adults, dark on top and light underneath. It's a usual marine camouflage, making them blend into the background for predators. Their dark backs blend into the dark abyss for predators looking down on them from above, their light bellies into the bright surface for predators looking up at them from below.

This one shows the patches of dark skin peeling off, showing the brown coat beneath.

The black coat is also an indicator of maturity to Marine Mammal Center rescuers. Pups rescued before they molt get formula.

Black coat weaners

Elephant seal pups are born with a solid black coat, unlike the brown coat with a light belly and dark back they will acquire. They molt that dark wavy coat after they are weaned. That's the condition of this fat weaner enjoying the sun today on the beach.

The black coat is technically considered lanugo, a preliminary coat. Even humans have a lanugo stage during fetal development. Elephant seals keep theirs after they are born.

The black skin peels off, revealing a silvery coat. Marianne Riedman in her book on The Pinnipeds reports that males molt later than females, so perhaps this one is a female. It's hard to tell with youngsters. Females also get teeth sooner than their brothers.

Elephant seal daycare

On Monday, I stopped at Hearst Beach, San Simeon Cove on my way up to the bluff. That’s where the man was attacked last month. State Parks has asked for volunteers to spend time there, to educate the public about the seals that are increasingly resting there.

Ranger Jose Lopez happened to arrive at the same time I did, so I joined him in driving down the beach to see how many were there. We counted seven adult seals on the beach.
He honked at them. They sure don’t like the truck. Several roused themselves as the truck drove past and a couple opened their mouths. I’m not sure whether it was a threat or not. I was glad I was in the truck and not on foot! How terrifying it would be to be attacked.

That wildlife/human interface is always troublesome.

At the Piedras Blancas bluff, thousands of seals are doing well. Many youngsters have already been weaned and are on their own. Some are still being born. I saw several newborns on the beach, although I didn’t witness any births that day.

These two mothers have attracted 11 pups! It made me wonder if there is any kind of reciprocal caring going on. Cows babysit for each other. I’ve never heard it described, but elephant seal mothering is far from completely understood. This looks like elephant seal daycare.

Man bitten by elephant seal

A man who was chasing people away from an adult male elephant seal got between the seal and the ocean and was attcked and bitten during the first week of January, http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/01/20/1449415/seal-bites-man-at-san-simeon.html. The seal was resting on the beach at San Simeon Cove, like this one I photographed January 10. In the distance, a rider on horseback is towing a surfer on a surfboard. The seal is more than twice as large as the horse.

The close encounters between humans and seals make attacks more likely. A subadult male was reported at Leffingwell Landing in Cambria in early January and many seals have made Arroyo Laguna their destination during the breeding season. Last year quite a few pups were born there. Only a conventional gate in the fence separates the public from the field. Visitors open it and walk among the seals. I watched two adults with two young children walking in the field January 17.

It's a worrisome situation. No one wants anyone to get hurt. The docent program at Piedras Blancas is the best defense against seal attacks. By educating the public, fewer will venture within biting range and both sides can remain safe.