The January time frame brings Northern Elephant Seals from deep Pacific waters on their 10,000 mile-per-year migratory cycle to select beaches along California's central coast to give birth and to mate. The rookery is the colony for Elephant Seals while they are on land. As mammals, Elephant Seals give birth to their pups and mate only on land. This short film presentation, captured in high definition, highlights the activity and sounds of the rookery including males battling for turf and for their harems, females nursing their pups and mating. A visit to the rookery during this time reveals the full circle of life of this incredible species, which was hunted to the brink of extinction near the end of the nineteenth century. Today, thanks to protections enacted in the early twentieth century, Northern Elephant Seals thrive and they number well over 250,000. This video was made at the rookery at Piedras Blancas State Beach near San Simeon, California on January 18-19, 2015. Piedras Blancas is the largest mainland rookery with as many as 3,000 adults and 1,000 pups or more each year.
10 сен 2024
