Northern Elephant Seal

Elephant seals earn their name from the bull’s inflatable trunk-like proboscis, which swells to roar threats at rivals each winter breeding season. Males fight head-to-head on crowded beaches while a dominant bull may hold a harem of 50 or more females.

At sea the animals are superb divers, routinely spending 20 minutes underwater and reaching depths beyond 1,500 meters in search of squid. Twice a year they return to land to breed and then molt their entire coat, spending the rest of the year almost continuously at sea.