Where does the sea elephant live? Elephant seals: species, description, reproduction, nutrition, behavior and conservation status. Range, habitats

Sea elephants are real giants, they are the largest carnivores. They belong to real seals and are somewhat similar to hooded seals, however, they are much larger than them. In nature, there are 2 types sea elephants: southern and northern.

Since the southern elephant seal is quite impressive in size, most people think that this animal is called an elephant because of this. In fact, their name comes from a fleshy growth on the nose, which resembles a trunk, although the size of such a "trunk" does not exceed 10 centimeters. Females do not have this distinctive feature.

southern elephant seals

In length, the sea elephant can reach 5 meters and weigh up to 2.5 tons. True, females are much smaller - only up to 3 meters, weighing less than a ton. The southern elephant seal differs from other species of seals big amount subcutaneous fat - more than 35%. The outgrowth on the nose is used as an element during mating battles. The skin of the animal is rough and thick, covered with thick fur. Juveniles are silver-gray, adults are brown.

The habitat of this subspecies is the subantarctic islands and the coast of Patagonia. individuals rarely seen alone, their favorite pastime is to form huge rookeries on pebble beaches.

Interesting Facts:

The southern elephant seal is larger than its northern neighbor - some individuals can reach 4 tons.
They can stay in the water for a long time - more than 20 minutes. The documented record for an animal being underwater without a break was 2 hours.
The maximum depth to which animals dive is almost 1.5 kilometers.
They spend most of their lives in the ocean. They come out on land during the breeding and molting season, for 3-5 weeks a year.

Females and males differ in the presence of a trunk and weight. At the same time, they have a lot in common: short front fins, a similar body type, a strong rear fin. Around the neck of animals are often observed scars, which they receive in battles during mating.

Features of life

feed on southern elephants crabs, fish and shrimp. Males forage for food in the waters continental shelf, and females go to the open sea.

Reproduction:

During the breeding and molting season, southern elephant seals most often arrive at the place where they were born. A few weeks before the females emerge from the water, the males fight for territory. At the same time, each of them must win back and protect a certain haulout for a long time. He goes without food, which makes him emaciated towards the end of the mating period. Therefore, only the strongest alpha males remain, each of which mates with dozens of females.
Most of the females stay at the rookery pregnant, give birth to offspring here, and after some time after that they are again ready for mating. As a rule, one cub is born. In rare cases, there may be two.
A newborn southern elephant seal is about a meter long and weighs 25-50 kg. The mother stays with the child for 23 days, after which mating takes place and the cub is weaned. At this time, he already weighs about 120 kg.
After that, the female goes to the ocean, and the young individuals unite in groups. For several weeks, they live off the use of subcutaneous fat. In the end, they start their journey to the ocean hungry. They learn to swim and find their own food on their own.
At 3 years, females reach sexual maturity, and by 6 years of age, they participate in the annual mating cycle. Males begin to compete for females only by the age of 10. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, with a life expectancy of about 20 years.

northern elephant seal

This subspecies lives on the west coast of America, where it is considered a tourist attraction. locals they are valued for attracting tourists en masse. Now elephant seals are protected by law. Until recently, they were so massively exterminated that the view is almost gone. It was even thought to be extinct for some time. However, it turned out that only one colony survived, which lived on the Mexican island of Guadeloupe. After the ban on hunting, the number of individuals increased dramatically. Now the rate of increase in the population is up to 15% annually. Today, the species is no longer under serious threat of extinction.

In their nature killer whales and sharks are considered enemies. During the rut, males die from mortal wounds. At the same time a large number of young animals die under the carcasses of adults.

The northern elephant seal differs from the southern one in that sexual dimorphism is less pronounced. However, the trunk of males is larger - it reaches 30 centimeters in length.

Sea Elephant very interesting animal refers to seals. The southern subspecies is much larger, since the northern subspecies was exterminated for a long time, which almost led to complete extinction animal. The southern representative of the species is somewhat larger than the northern one and is the largest carnivorous mammals.

Elephant seals are pinnipeds from the true seal family. In their order, these animals are the largest and exceed the size of the well-known walruses. The closest relative of elephant seals is the hooded seal, with which they have common features. In total, there are 2 types of elephant seals - northern and southern.

Male northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris).

Sea elephants got their name not by chance, they are animals of really gigantic sizes. The body length of the male southern elephant seal can reach up to 5 m, weight up to 2.5 tons! Females are much smaller and reach a length of “only” 3 m. Elephant seals differ from the rest of the seals in their overall weight and a large amount of subcutaneous fat. The weight of the fat layer can be 30% of the total weight of the animal.

Penguins next to the southern elephant seal give an idea of the size of this animal.

In addition to their size, elephant seals have another feature that makes them look like real elephants. The males of these animals have a thickened fleshy outgrowth on the nose, similar to a short trunk. During the mating season, the trunk is used for decoration, intimidation and as a resonator that enhances the formidable roar.

Male northern elephant seal during mating.

The females do not have a trunk.

The female northern elephant seal.

The skin of elephant seals is thick and rough like that of a walrus, but covered with short thick fur like that of real seals. Mature elephant seals are brown in color, while young ones are silver-gray.

Young southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina).

Geographically, both species are also separated: the southern elephant seals live on the coast of Patagonia and the subantarctic islands, while the northern ones live on the west coast. North America from Mexico and California to Canada. Both species prefer to settle on pebbly beaches and gently sloping rocky coasts. Elephant seals, unlike other seals, form rather large rookeries, numbering up to a thousand individuals.

Female southern elephant seal on a rookery.

Interestingly, southern elephant seals have two types of rookeries - for breeding and for feeding. Feeding rookeries are several hundred kilometers away from the "maternity hospitals", so elephant seals regularly migrate. These animals feed mainly on cephalopods, less often on fish. In general, elephant seals are quite calm and even apathetic animals. Because of his heavy weight on land, they are clumsy and behave sluggishly.

The breeding season occurs only once a year and begins in August-October (in the Southern Hemisphere it is spring). Sexually mature males and females are the first to arrive at the maternity rookeries, the young come a little later. During mating season males are transformed beyond recognition. If at normal times they just sleep on the shore, then during the rut they lose their peace and sleep. Each male occupies a certain area of the beach and does not allow other males to enter it. When the competition grows, the opponents converge in a fierce battle. They roar loudly, puff out their noses and shake them funny in the air to intimidate the enemy. But it looks funny only to an outside observer, because the males themselves in fights bite each other to the point of blood and often inflict severe injuries on the opponent.

Male southern elephant seals in a bloody duel.

And the thing is that every female entering the territory of the male becomes his chosen one and mates with him (unless, of course, she is beaten off by an opponent). So males form around themselves harems of 10-30 females. Pregnancy lasts 11 months, so childbirth and mating occur almost simultaneously. Females give birth to one large cub, the “baby” weighs 20-30 kg! Baby elephant seals are born black. Mothers feed them with milk for a little more than a month, after which the young move to the periphery of the haulout and do not enter the water for several more weeks. All this time, the cubs live off the reserves of subcutaneous fat accumulated during feeding with milk. After some time, the animals molt, after which they leave the breeding grounds.

Sea elephant during molting.

Despite their large size, many elephant seals (especially young ones) die in the mouths of killer whales and sharks. Sometimes males die from wounds and general exhaustion during the rut, besides, adult males often crush cubs in the tightness of the rookery. In general, these animals are not very prolific, moreover, their numbers have been greatly undermined by fishing. Previously, hunting for elephant seals was carried out for the sake of rendered fat (up to 400 kg from one male!), Meat and skins. Now the fishery has already been stopped, but the number of northern elephant seals is still low.

Yawning sea elephant.

Domain: eukaryotes

Kingdom: Animals

Type: chordates

Class: mammals

Squad: Predatory

Family: real seals

Genus: sea elephants

Spreading

Large colonies of the southern elephant seal are located on the following subantarctic archipelagos and islands: South Georgia, Kerguelen, Heard, Macquarie. Outside the mating season, individuals can be found on the coasts South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Patagonia and Antarctica. These animals can cover sea distances up to 4,800 km.

The northern elephant seal used to be distributed along the entire western coast of North America from Alaska to Baja California. In the 19th century, however, the mass extermination of these animals began for the sake of extracting blubber. Every year, thousands of elephant seals became victims of hunters, and soon this species was already considered extinct. Only one small colony of less than a hundred individuals survived on the Mexican island of Guadalupe. After its discovery, northern elephant seals were taken under protection.

In the 1930s, elephant seals came out to mate on land in California's Channel Islands. Currently, northern elephant seals are found on many islands located along west coast continent. In the north, their range reaches the Farallon Islands, and outside the mating season even to Vancouver Island.

The population increases by 15% every year and today this species is no longer seriously threatened. However, the fact that the number of northern elephant seals has passed through a bottleneck has led to extremely low genetic diversity of living individuals, which can become a serious problem under changing environmental conditions.

Description

Elephant seals (Mirounga) are the largest genus in the family of true seals, a class of mammals. There are two types of elephant seals, named according to the hemisphere in which they live.

The oldest confirmed fossils of these animals date back to the Pliocene era and were discovered in New Zealand. Only the adult male has a large trunk similar to that of an elephant. The male uses it to roar during the mating season. Southern elephant seals are slightly larger than northern ones. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced, males of both species are much larger than females. The average weight of an adult male of the southern species can be 3000 kg, and the body length can reach 5 m. An adult female weighs about 900 kg, and her body length is approximately 3 m. The color of the animal depends on sex, age and season. It can be rusty, light or dark brown, or gray in color. The elephant seal has a large body, short toed front flippers, and webbed rear flippers. Under the skin is a thick layer of fat that protects the animal in a cold environment. Every year, elephant seals molt. Average duration life span is 20 to 22 years.

Kinds

There are two types of elephant seals: Southern and Northern. The northern elephant seal reaches large sizes, its body length reaches five meters, and its weight is up to three and a half tons. Females in weight and size are much inferior to males: weight up to 900 kilograms, body length up to three meters. The color of such elephant seals is gray. They live on the Californian and Mexican islands and on the island of Guadeloupe. Offspring are born in January. Southern elephant seals are brown and slightly smaller than their counterparts. They live in the waters of Antarctica, and bring offspring in October.

northern elephant seal

northern elephant seal(Mirounga angustirostris) is a species pinnipeds mammals from the family of real seals. The size of the male northern elephant seal reaches 6 m, and the females - more than 3 m. The name of this marine animal was given for big sizes and a nose capable of swelling and then resembling a folded trunk.

Males are very different from females - they are almost twice as large, and in the breeding season they often puff their noses to appear larger.

This huge pinniped - northern elephant seal - is found on the Pacific coast of America from Alaska to Hudson Bay.

The northern elephant seal feeds on small sharks, fish, and squid. Elephant seals come out in December and January so that the females can produce offspring. Males are the first to come ashore and defend the territory for their harem. Elephant seals form dense colonies on the shore. There is always one baby in a litter of elephant seals. It is covered in black fur and stays ashore for almost five months.

southern elephant seal

The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is the most large view seals in the world. The trunk of the southern elephant seal is much shorter than that of the northern counterpart: its length is about 10 cm. This huge, enlarged nose is absent in females and young males. After constant growth, the trunk reaches full sizes by the eighth year of life and hangs over the mouth with the nostrils down. During the mating season, this trunk swells even more due to the increased rush of blood. It happens that during fights, more aggressive male billhooks tear each other's trunks to shreds. Differences in size between males and females are significant. The male can reach sizes up to six and a half meters, and the female only three and a half meters. The weight of the male is up to three and a half tons, the female weighs a maximum of 900 kg.

Elephant seals prey on fish and cephalopods. Elephant seals are able to dive for prey to a depth of 1400 m. This is possible thanks to their big mass and a large volume of blood that can store a lot of oxygen. Like whales, activity internal organs in elephant seals, during diving to a depth, it slows down, which reduces the consumption of oxygen. The natural enemies of elephant seals are white sharks and killer whales, hunting in the upper layers of the water.

Lifestyle

Elephant seals spend most of their lives underwater, feeding on fish and shellfish. They are able to dive to a depth of about 1400 meters, holding their breath for more than two hours. At the same time, the activity of their internal organs slows down, which saves required amount oxygen. Their natural enemies killer whales and white sharks are waiting for nosed seals in the upper layers of the water.

Elephant seals come ashore only when warm time years in order to give birth to offspring and conceive a new one. For three whole months, huge colonies fill the coastal zones. Two or three dozen females give birth to babies under the auspices of one male.

Fierce battles are fought for harems, in which opponents are capable of inflicting serious wounds on each other. Every year, additional scars appear on the body of the strongest and largest males.

Interestingly, outwardly clumsy and clumsy elephant seals literally change before our eyes during fights. Sometimes they even straighten up to their full gigantic height and, vigorously waving their straightened trunk and back body, make amazing pirouettes.

Young three-four-year-old elephant seals are forced to lead a bachelor lifestyle - they are forced out of the edges of the colony by more mature eight-year-old counterparts. Considering this state of affairs unfair, from time to time they try to break through to "married" females, which leads to new fights.

In the harems, their own is seething family life. Each "wife" has one cub about 80 cm long and weighing 20 kg. The mother feeds him with nutritious milk for 4-5 weeks, after which he must take care of himself. Having left her, he remains on the shore for another month, extracting nutrients from the fat layer. During this period, molting occurs, after which the baby goes on his first voyage.

The female is ready for a new fertilization about a month after giving birth. Her pregnancy will last a long 11 months. Having conceived, she fattens a little in the sea, and then fits into the post-nuptial molt. Mature males are the last to molt.

Interestingly, during this period, animals of all ages relax so much that you can come close to them. The body of the seals resembles a spreading jelly, they absolutely do not pay attention to what is happening around. Having finished their "land" business, elephant seals go to the ocean.

Elephant seal food

Elephant seals feed on fish and cephalopods that are caught in the open sea. Recent studies on the coast of California, which measured the depth of immersion of animals, showed that elephant seals are able to dive to a depth of 1,000 m. They feed on marine animals, octopuses and even small sharks. Elephant seals have rather long fangs protruding from the gums by about four centimeters; molars are poorly developed, so they prefer soft-bodied prey that does not require thorough chewing.

Reproduction and lifespan

Immediately after the molt, the time of love comes in the life of elephants. From the middle of winter to the middle of spring, elephants fight, then breed, and put future offspring on their feet.

It all starts with the elephants sliding onto the shore. The female, being pregnant, since last year. After all, they have eleven months in this period. Male elephants have nothing to do with raising offspring.

Having found a quiet, inconspicuous place for herself, the mother gives birth to only one cub. He is born a meter tall, and weighing up to forty kilograms. For a whole month, the mother elephant feeds the child only with her own milk. It is among the representatives of these individuals, the most high-calorie. Its fat content is fifty percent. The child during feeding, gains weight well. After that, the mother leaves her child forever.

The offspring formed a sufficient layer of subcutaneous fat so that they could survive in the next adaptive, independent month of their lives. At the age of three months, children leave the haulouts and go to open waters.

As soon as the female moves away from her child, a period of mating battles begins without rules. The largest and oldest elephants fight not for life, but for death, for the right to become the sultan of their harem.

Elephants roar loudly at each other, inflate their trunks and swing them, in the hope that this will frighten the rival. Then powerful, sharp teeth come into play. The winner collects the ladies near him. Some have harems of three hundred females. And the victim, and all wounded, goes to the edge of the rookery. All the same, he finds a soul mate for himself, not having the authority of a hipper male. It is unfortunate, but during such fights, very often they suffer, and little children die, simply not noticing them in battle, they are trampled by adults.

Having gathered his women, the leader chooses a passion for himself, menacingly placing his front flipper on her back. So he shows superiority over her. And if the lady is not disposed to the meeting, the male does not care about such a circumstance. He climbs with all his tons onto her back. Here already resistance is useless.

The sexually mature period begins, in the younger generation, by the age of four in males. Females, from the age of two, are ready for mating. For ten years, female elephant seals can give birth to children. Then they get old. Elephant seals die at the age of fifteen or twenty.

The amazing ability of elephant seals is to sleep underwater. But how do animals manage to breathe at this time? After all, they have lungs, not gills! .. Scientists managed to find out the secret of such underwater sleep. After five or ten minutes of being underwater rib cage the animal expands, while the nostrils remain tightly closed. From this, the density of the body decreases, and it floats. At the surface of the water, the nostrils open, and for about three minutes the animal inhales air. Then it sinks to the bottom again. The eyes remain closed all this time: the elephant is clearly asleep.
Stones are usually found in the stomach of the elephant seal. Residents of the places where these animals live, believe that the stones serve as ballast during the immersion of elephants under water. There are other explanations as well. For example, stones in the stomach can contribute to the grinding of food - whole swallowed fish and crustaceans.
Among the males, four groups can be clearly distinguished. The first - "teenage" - includes animals aged from one to six years, their size does not exceed three meters. They appear on the rookery in winter, especially after storms, with the clear purpose of taking a break from swimming. These animals are the earliest to molt - in December (the beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere), and then all other animals appear in order of seniority: the older, the later. The second, or “youthful”, group is formed by animals aged from six to thirteen years, their sizes are from three to four and a half meters. They come to the beach in the fall, shortly after the females have cubs, but they do not fight with older males and, even before the start of the rut (after weaning the cubs), they swim into the sea. The next age group is the so-called applicants. Such males, ranging in size from four and a half to six meters, with a proudly swollen trunk, are in a constantly aggressive mood and climb to fight with the owners of the rookery - the owners of "harems" - powerful old males, trying to beat off some of the females from them. These old experienced males make up the fourth age group.
Observations have shown that the same old and strong male dominates the "harem" throughout the breeding season, and younger and weaker males are often forced to give up their place to a rival superior in strength to them. Although the fights of males are usually played out in the water, not far from the coast, panic also begins on the beach at this time - alarmed females scream, cubs try to escape. Therefore, from "harems", where they are disturbed too often, females try to move to calmer "harems".
The fight of males is an impressive sight. Rivals, having swum up to each other, rise “on their hind legs”, towering four meters above the shallow water, and freeze in this position for several minutes, resembling stone statues of monsters. Animals emit a dull roar, their trunks swell menacingly, irrigating the enemy with a cascade of spray. After such a presentation, the weaker enemy usually retreats backwards, continuing to roar menacingly, and, having moved to a safe distance, takes to his heels. The winner, on the other hand, lets out a proud cry and, having made several false throws in pursuit of the fugitive, calms down and returns to the beach.
No matter how intimidating such a battle may look from the outside, in most cases it does not come to serious bloodshed. Usually everything is limited to mutual intimidation, frightening roar and sniffling. The biological meaning of such behavior is clear: the strongest is revealed, who will take over the functions of the producer during the mating season and, as the successor of the family, will pass on his offspring positive traits. At the same time, the weaker young male does not die on the battlefield and is thus not excluded from the further process of reproduction of the species.
In relation to humans, tall males do not always show aggressiveness. And not they, but just the females can be the most dangerous for the researcher who dared to penetrate into the very thick of the herd. John Warham, for example, more than once had to get acquainted with their sharp teeth and shamefully run away, leaving a good piece of his trouser leg to the angry sea elephant.
Having been born, the cub emits a short bark, reminiscent of a dog, the mother responds to him in the same way, sniffs him and thus remembers. Subsequently, she will unmistakably distinguish him among many other cubs and will be able to return if he makes an attempt to escape.
Mention should be made of one of the most amazing adaptations of the animal organism to the conditions of existence: the development of the embryo in the womb of the female is suspended for the time of molting, and the embryo is, as it were, "preserved" for the entire unfavorable period of the animal's life. (A similar phenomenon is observed in some other animals - many pinnipeds, as well as in sable, rabbit, kangaroo, etc.) The development of the embryo continues only in March, when the molt in females is already over.
The appearance of a molting elephant seal is the most deplorable: the old skin hangs on it in torn rags. First, she gets off the muzzle, and then from the rest of the body. At the same time, the poor fellows scratch their sides and stomach with flippers, trying to speed up this process, which is clearly unpleasant for them. Moulting animals are usually located in some moss-covered swamp, not far from the coast, and, restlessly tossing and turning, stir up loose soil, turning it into a dirty mess. In it, they are immersed to the very nostrils. The stench around is terrifying at this time.

Video

Your name sea Elephant received thanks to a process located above the oral cavity, which resembles a trunk. A trunk 30 cm long grows in males closer to eight years of age, in females the process is completely absent.

An interesting fact about the sea elephant is the property of the trunk to increase in size up to 60-80 cm during sexual arousal. Males shake their proboscis in front of competitors in the hope of scaring them.

Description and features of the sea elephant

Pro maritime elephants researchers have collected a large amount of information. On photo of sea elephant resembles: the body of an animal is streamlined, the head is small in size with a trunk on which vibrissae are located (mustache with high sensitivity), the eyeballs are in the shape of a flattened oval and are painted in dark color, the limbs are replaced by flippers, which are equipped with long claws reaching 5 cm.

Elephant seals are poorly adapted to life on land, because their obese body prevents them from moving: one step of a large animal is only about 35 cm. Because of their sluggishness, they bask on the shore almost all the time and sleep.

Pictured is a sea elephant

Their sleep is so strong that they even snore, biologists even managed to measure their temperature and heart rate during their rest. one more interesting fact about elephant seals is the animal's ability to sleep underwater.

This process occurs as follows: 5-10 minutes after falling asleep, the chest expands, as a result of which the density of the body decreases slightly and it slowly rises.

After the body is on the surface, the nostrils open and the elephant breathes for about 3 minutes, after this time it falls back into the water column. Eyes and nostrils during underwater recreation are in the closed position.

Elephant seal during sleep can dive under water and emerge

For people who first encounter this animal, the question arises: What does a sea elephant look like?? Male elephant seals are much larger than females. If the body length of the male is on average about 5-6 m, elephant seal weight- can reach 3 tons, the body length of individuals female only 2.5 - 3 m, weight - 900 kg. For this species of elephants, a characteristic gray thick fur.

Elephant seals living in are slightly larger than their northern relatives - weight is about 4 tons, length - 6 m, and their fur is colored brown. In water, animals move at a fairly high speed up to 23 km / h.

Pictured is a northern elephant seal

Elephant seal lifestyle and habitat

Elephant seals spend most of their time in their natural element, water. On land, they are selected only for mating and molting. The time of their stay on the surface of the earth does not exceed 3 months.

places, where sea elephants live depends on their type. Exists northern elephant seal living on the coasts of North America, and southern elephant seal whose residence is Antarctica.

Animals lead a solitary life, gather together only to conceive offspring. During their stay on land, elephant seals live on beaches strewn with pebbles or stones. The rookery of animals can number more than 1000 individuals. Elephant seals are calm, even a little phlegmatic animals.

Elephant seal food

Elephant seals feed on cephalopods and. According to some reports, the elephant seal, which is about 5 m long, eats 50 kg. fish.

Due to its large physique, a lot of air is retained in a large volume of blood, which helps sea elephants dive to a depth of about 1400 meters in search of food.

During a deep dive under water, the activity of all important organs slows down in an animal - this process greatly reduces oxygen consumption - animals are able to retain air for up to two hours.

Elephant skin is thick and covered with coarse short hair. The animal has a lot of fat deposits, which are somewhat burned during the mating season, when they do not eat at all.

IN elephant seals antarctica go in the warm season in search of prey. During migration, they are able to overcome the path, the length of which is about 4800 km.

Reproduction and lifespan of the sea elephant

Males reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age. But at this age they mate very rarely, because they are not yet strong enough to defend the right to mate with other Scythians. Males acquire sufficient physical force at least eight years of age.

When the time of the mating season comes (and this time is from August to October for the southern elephant seal, February for gray elephant seal), animals gather in large groups, where one male falls from 10 to 20 females.

There are fierce battles between males for the right to have a harem in the center of the colony: males shake their short trunks, roar loudly and rush at the enemy in order to inflict as many injuries as possible with the help of sharp fangs.

Despite their large physique, in a fight, males can almost completely raise their body, remaining above the ground to stand on only one tail. Weak young males are forced to the edge of the colony, where the conditions for mating females are much worse.

After establishing the owner of the harem, already pregnant females give birth to cubs that were conceived in the previous year. Pregnancy lasts a little less than a year (11 months). The body length of a newborn cub is 1.2 m, weight is 50 kg.

The body of the cub is covered with soft brown fur, which sheds a month after birth. Brown fur changes to dark gray thick fur. After the birth of the offspring, the female brings up and feeds him with milk for a month, and then again mates with the male.

At the end of the month, the young live on the shore for a couple more weeks, while not eating anything, using the previously accumulated fat for consumption. The offspring goes into the water two months after birth.

And whites are the worst enemy for young elephant seals. Because mating sea elephants the process is quite intense (fights, "persuasion" of the female), most of the cubs die due to the fact that they are simply crushed.

The life expectancy of males is about 14 years, females - 18 years. This difference arises from the fact that males receive many serious injuries during competitions, which worsens their overall health. Often the injuries are so severe that the animals cannot recover from them and die.

Sea elephants (lat. Mirounga) - the genus of the largest predatory mammals from the family of true seals, it owes its name to the long proboscis-shaped nose of males. With the help of this “trunk”, the male gives a signal of danger or reports the conquest of his own harem.

Elephant seals spend most of their lives underwater, feeding on fish and shellfish. They are able to dive to a depth of about 1400 meters, holding their breath for more than two hours. At the same time, the activity of their internal organs slows down, which saves the necessary amount of oxygen. Their natural enemies are and, waiting for nosed seals in the upper layers of the water.

Elephant seals come ashore only in the warm season in order to give birth to offspring and conceive a new one. For three whole months, huge colonies fill the coastal zones. Two or three dozen females give birth to babies under the auspices of one male.

Fierce battles are fought for harems, in which opponents are capable of inflicting serious wounds on each other. Every year, additional scars appear on the body of the strongest and largest males.

Interestingly, outwardly clumsy and clumsy elephant seals literally change before our eyes during fights. Sometimes they even straighten up to their full gigantic height and, vigorously swinging their straightened trunk and back of the body, make amazing pirouettes.

In harems, their own family life is seething. Each "wife" has one cub about 80 cm long and weighing 20 kg. The mother feeds him with nutritious milk for 4-5 weeks, after which he must take care of himself. After leaving it, he stays on the shore for another month, extracting nutrients from the fat layer. During this period, molting occurs, after which the baby goes on his first voyage.

Two species of these mammals are known - these are the northern and southern elephant seals. The former are found on islands along the western coast of North America. They are slightly smaller than their southern relatives. Males weigh 2.7 tons with a body length of almost 5 m. Their trunk reaches 30 cm, which is much larger than that of the "southerners".

Southern elephant seals gather in colonies on subantarctic archipelagos and islands such as Kerguelen, Macquarie, Heard and South Georgia. Individuals are found on the coasts of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The weight of the largest males can reach 3.5 tons, and the body length is 6.5 m. The females of both species are half the size of their partners.