Day Trips:
Battles, Birth, Sex on the Beach
Elephant Seal Colony is the stuff of Discovery Channel
By Susan McDonald
Friends of the Elephant Seal
One of the North Coast's newest attractions is also one of its biggest. Literally.
Elephant seals, some weighing more than 5,000 pounds, have taken up residence on beaches at Piedras Blancas just minutes north of San Simeon. And during the breeding season, these "big guys" sure love to throw their weight around.
 Winter is the best time to catch the action. Visitors lucky enough to be in San Luis Obispo's North Coast area November through February will see ferocious battles, sex scenes, births of babies, nurturing mothers, valiant struggles between life and death - all within close view from the bluff above the beach.
When spring arrives, most of the adult seals have migrated north - some as far as the Bering Sea - to feed in deep water. This is the time when the playful young pups left behind on the beach put on quite a show of their own. Youngsters frolic in the water as they teach themselves to swim and find food. Young males stage mock battles. All the little ones are busy exploring their new world.
Then, in late spring and early summer, the adult seals return in shifts to molt, a natural shedding of skin and fur. From September until mid-November, the elephant seal action on the beach dies down, with just a few juveniles return for the fall haul-out to rest.
Where to find them
The best place to view elephant seals is a public vista point located about 4.5 miles north of Hearst Castle. There's a large gravel parking lot and many interpretive signs in several languages that explain this incredible phenomenon - the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony. (If you go, plan your pit stops ahead of time: there are no restrooms at the Piedras Blancas beach area.)
Visitors may walk along a bluff-top trail to see the seals at close range. Walking on the beach amongst the animals is not permitted for the safety of the visitors and out of respect for the animals. (And common sense: the seals can - and do - bite.) If you go, remember: elephant seals, like all marine mammals, are protected from harassment by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Look for Friends of the Elephant Seal guides wearing blue jackets to answer your questions and point out the latest activities.
The Fastest Growing Elephant Seal Colony in the World
 The presence of elephant seals on the north coast of San Luis Obispo County is a fairly recent phenomenon. Why the big guys picked Piedras Blancas for a new hangout is also a mystery. But the sheltered beaches, dunes and coves in the area seem to be a near-perfect spot for these magnificent creatures, who are seeking a safe haven to give birth, breed, rest and molt.
Marine biologists do know this: a handful of young males arrived at a cove near the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse in 1990. Two years later, a female gave birth to one pup there. And that was the beginning of the fastest-growing elephant seal colony ever recorded.
Eight years after that one female gave birth in the cove, during the 1999-2000 breeding and pupping season, about 8,000 seals came ashore at the cove at Piedras Blancas, and 1,900 pups were born. Talk about a population explosion!
Tags sighted on the animals show that most of the seals are coming from San Miguel and San Nicholas islands off Santa Barbara and Aņo Nuevo. (Researchers attach colored tags to the rear flippers of some animals to identify where they are from.)
Marine biologists think the animals return to mate at the beaches where they were born. How do new colonies like Piedras Blancas spring up? No one knows for sure, but scientists think the elephant seals move to a new area because of overcrowding or failure to wean a pup at their previous home.
November: The Boys are Back in Town
 At the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony, the large bulls usually begin coming ashore late in November to stake out their territory and wait for the arrival of the females. It's a time of jostling for the best spot on the beach and for establishing just who is going to dominate the harems.
During November, Alpha bulls make quite a sight as they bellow and battle to fend off rivals. Actual battles can be ferocious and bloody, with two bulls bashing their large chests together and slashing at each other with their huge teeth. But it is rare for these animals to fight to the death; one usually gives up after a while and skulks off down the beach or into the water.
It isn't until about the age of nine that a bull has bulked up enough to be called "alpha." By then, he has developed the distinctive pendulous nose (the reason the seals are called elephant seals) and battle-scarred chest shield that establish his rank as the "beachmaster."
The largest of the alphas weigh more than two tons. But only a small number - 5 to 10 percent - of all males actually live to breeding age. And not all of those ever get the opportunity to mate.
December: Girls Just Want to Have Babies
Female elephant seals are already pregnant when they start to come ashore, usually during the middle of December. A female will usually give birth to one wriggly black pup within a few days of her arrival. The first births occur around Christmas. The bulk of the females come to the rookery in January to give birth, with most pups born toward the end of the month.
The mother and pup bond through sound and smell. It is important to note that they must not be separated at birth. If imprinting is not allowed to take place, the pup will starve because the mother won't recognize it as her own and will not allow it to nurse.
January and February: Puppy Love
 Pups nurse for about a month, growing fat on the richness of their mother's milk. A pup weighs about 60 pounds at birth, but may balloon to four times that weight by the time it is weaned. Toward the end of the nursing period, the female is in estrus and ready to mate. This is what the alpha bulls are here for. A little over a month after arriving at the rookery, the female is impregnated and she leaves the beach to head out to sea. But first she has to get past a determined crew of "bachelors" that have been chased off by the alpha, but are undeterred in their quest to mate.
After their mothers leave, the pups - known as "weaners" - stay on the beach, living off their fat and trying to stay out of the way of the large bulls. The pups group together in "weaner pods," teaching themselves how to swim and find food. About two weeks after weaning, the pups begin venturing into the sea. By age 3 1/2 months, they have learned to swim and dive and are ready to make their first migration.
The pupping season can last into February, but most of the births have occurred the month before. The males stay on the beach until all the females have gone. Both the males and females have fasted for their entire stay and have lost one-third of their body weight by the time they leave the Piedras Blancas beach in late spring. Weaners stay another couple of months before heading out to sea. The surviving weaners return five months later for the fall haul-out.
Summer Molt: Really, the Seals are OK
For many visitors to the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony, the spring and summer molt is hard to watch. Often, people think the crusty, lethargic seals with peeling skin are sick or even dead. But this process known as a "catastrophic molt" is a natural shedding of hair and skin.
Females and juveniles return to the beach in April and May to molt. Sub-adult males arrive in June and the adult males come ashore in July and remain on the beach into August.
Volunteers give lessons in seal-viewing etiquette
 Because the Piedras Blancas beach and its elephant seal colony are right next to Highway 1, it quickly began to draw plenty of human visitors eager to see the magnificent creatures.
By the mid-1990s, the cove was drawing thousands of human spectators. The human crowds visiting the beach colony haul-out areas prompted plenty of concern - both for the animals and the humans. To help keep the Piedras Blancas elephant seal colony and cove safe for both the seals and human visitors, The Friends of the Elephant Seal volunteer docent program was set up in 1997. The docent program aims to provide information and help improve health and safety conditions for people and seals alike.
The first 25 volunteers were trained in October 1997 and took their posts the following month over Thanksgiving weekend at the two highway vista points nearest the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse. That first busy weekend, 30 docents spoke with more than 1,200 people. Since then, another 75 volunteers have been added and the entire crew has met with about 70,000 visitors each year.
The goal of Friends of the Elephant Seal is to ensure that beachgoers have safe visits and to promote respect and stewardship for the natural wonders of our area.
If you go, remember to observe the animals from the bluff, to keep all dogs on leashes or in the car, to park only in the designated vista point parking area and stay off the fragile dunes. The docents there will be happy to answer any questions you may have. . For more information, visit the Friends of the Elephant Seal office in the Cavalier Plaza, San Simeon, or call 924-1628.
More Information about Elephant Seals
For more information on California's magnificent elephant seals, try the following websites: (click on the colored text to get there);
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