Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/5
140 mm
1/500
100

The Original…. before HBO….

It’s breeding season for the elephant seals at Año Nuevo, and they get extraordinarily loud when they go at it with 5000 lbs of polygamous love.

Here you see a couple of females exchanging words.

The current census at this breeding ground (one of seven that they return to):
326 males, 1710 females, 1137 pups.

When they depart, the males hug the coast, swimming as far North as Alaska to cool off, and the females go to Hawaii. =)

Here’s a short video pan of the breeding grounds.

9 responses to “Big Love”

  1. I can see why the females would exchange a few harsh words… having about 1/6 of a male each… 🙂

  2. Odd ratio…
    (thinking of Darwin here…where is the competition amongst males..?)

  3. Interesting stats – neat shot!

    The lumps in the landscape look like them, too.

  4. Wonderful capture and fun title/description

  5. The males go as far as Alaska while the females go to Hawaii……Isn’t it obvious? I mean, how many times can you be told to take out the trash and put the toilet seat down! 😉

  6. venetta – do share!

    Some more shots. There are a lot of pixels in the shot above. And teeth:
    Seal Teeth

    Looking Back… mums and pups:
    Arched Head

    …a bit of that lovin’
    Seal Hump

    Cooling off by kicking up sand….
    Seal Dust

  7. wow!!! Large mouth…very cool…will try to see this park too… the statistics is different (if research is correct, males outnumbered females lately as a result of global warming:D hmm, go figure)…oh, wise ones could still leave the crowded beach and go to Hawaii:)

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