Are you looking for an excursion with your holiday houseguests or an excuse to walk off the Christmas cookies and eggnog? December through March is the prime viewing period for elephant seals in nearby San Simeon.
Hunted to near extinction in the 19th century, today Northern Elephant Seals number around 200,000. Here on the Central Coast, that conservation success story is evident by the number of specimens visiting our coastline. By mid-December, the four-mile stretch of San Simeon State Beach will host about 18,000 seals—a riotous scene of dramatic male territorial battles, pregnant females giving birth, and new pups.
Seals spend the majority of the year at sea but come ashore to mate and to molt. First to arrive in late November are the bull (male) elephant seals. They take their name from their large, trunk-like proboscis and their size. A bull can weigh as much as an Asian elephant.
Elephant seals mate in harems. The strongest and most aggressive males become alpha or harem masters. At the beginning of the season, bulls fight one another to claim sections of the beach. They establish territory by producing loud roaring noises from the proboscis and ramming their opponents with chest and teeth. Battles can be bloody but are rarely fatal.
Pregnant females come ashore in December choosing areas of the beach safe for raising pups. They form harems of 20 to 50 females, depending on the harem master to protect them from outside males. Within days a female gives birth to the pup that was conceived the previous year.
Pups are born with black fur making them easy to identify. The pup is nursed for 25 to 28 days. During that time the mother will fast, while the baby will grow from around 70 pounds to 250-350 pounds. Adult elephant seals lose up to a third of their body weight during the breeding season. In the last two or three days of the nursing period, females are ready to mate. Soon after, they return to the ocean abandoning their pups.
By mid-March, most of the adult seals are gone. Pups spend another several weeks on the beach learning how to swim and dive. Like their parents, they fast during that time, living on their accumulated blubber. Though clumsy and cautious of the water at first, by early April they will follow the adults out to sea.
The Elephant Seal Vista Point is about an hour-and-a-half drive from Bryson. Take the CA-46 West turning right (north) where it ends, onto CA-1. Continue to five miles north of Hearst Castle where there is a large parking lot and a walking trail to the site. Look for the distinctive blue jackets of docents who volunteer 365 days a year to answer your questions.
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