2021-2022 Elephant Seal Breeding Season Begins in Point Reyes

A group of pregnant and nursing females. Elephant seals must be on land to give birth, as their newborn pups can’t swim. NPS / Marjorie Cox, NMFS Permit No. 21425

January 7, 2022 - The 2021-2022 elephant seal pupping and breeding season is just getting underway at Point Reyes National Seashore. The elephant seal monitoring crew recorded the season’s first pup on December 25th. Drakes Beach was closed on January 5th due to a large number of male seals in front of the Ken Patrick Visitor Center. It will remain closed unless seal numbers decrease. Other annual beach closures on Drakes Beach to the southwest of the Ken Patrick Visitor Center, at the Fish Dock, the beach at the Historic Lifeboat Station, and at the southern end of South Beach are also in effect until March 31st.

Though adult seals have only recently begun arriving after lengthy foraging journeys at sea, the park beaches have not been empty. Immature elephant seals have been there since September, resting. Too young to participate in breeding, these seals are now starting to depart for their own adventures at sea.

Meanwhile, adult males begin arriving first and ramp up their vocalizations and dominance contests as more pregnant females arrive soon after. A recent study by researchers at UC Santa Cruz found that the pregnant female elephant seals time their arrival very precisely. Regardless of whether they are nearby or nearly 1,000 miles away in the weeks before their return, they typically give birth within 5.5 days of coming ashore. This likely helps them balance getting enough to eat before the weeks of fasting while they nurse their pups with ensuring that they don’t give birth while out at sea (young pups cannot swim). Biologists expect a great many more females to continue arriving at Point Reyes beaches in the weeks ahead.

Check out the Weekly Elephant Seal Monitoring Update to learn more and keep up with the latest breeding season news.

For more information

Condit, R., Beltran, R. S., Robinson, P. W., Crocker, D. E., & Costa, D. P. (2021). Birth timing after the long feeding migration in northern elephant seals. Marine Mammal Science, 1– 10.

San Francisco Bay Area Network Pinniped Monitoring webpage

Point Reyes’ Viewing Elephant Seals webpage

Pacific Coast Science & Learning Center Elephant Seals webpage

• Contact Marine Ecologist Sarah Codde

See more from the Bay Area Nature & Science Blog

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• Point Reyes National Seashore

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