Elephant Seal Birth 1/5/13 Piedras Blancas Rookery

Pupping season at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery in San Simeon and a brand new pup is born. This was on the first beach up the north trail. This female had a yellow tag indicating she was born on San Miguel Island (tag (M33?). This is a great time of year to see the Elephant Seals and there were lots of pups.

• Category

  Pets & Animals

[NorcoKris]

It should be noted that I am up on a bluff and using some zoom (good point and shoot) and not as close as it may appear.

[gale mccullough]

Would love to see what happened next. Did the mother manage to move the pup away from the afterbirth or did the gulls pester the pup as well? I was able to watch a Harbor seal birth on the ledge I observe ... not nearly as close nor video but though it might interest you

[NorcoKris]

Actually it got real interesting 'next'. I will post another video soon. Another female came in and seemed to be trying to claim the baby. Mom was having none of that though. As for the afterbirth it was attached to the pup for quite some time. The Gulls picked at it but there was no big frenzy this time. I don't know about flickr but wouldn't be surprised if youtube prohibits it. You talking about the Harbor Seals in La Jolla?

[esealinfo4u]

Great video of this birth ! Looks like a female pup ? Could you see ? The mom looked like a pretty seasoned birther !

[NorcoKris]

You have better eyes than me if you can see anything that has to do with gender from this! I don't even think I got a good view of that after the video.

[esealinfo4u]

You can sometimes tell by the size of the pup, the shape of the head and/or foreflippers

[NorcoKris]

Never knew that

[angeledstone]

Awww so cute

[odderie]

Nature is incredible. Thanks for sharing!

[gale mccullough]

Sorry I guess I can't post a link to flickr.