This year turned out to be a lucky one for Bird Island
residents with two elephant seal pups born on Landing beach, which is the next
beach over from us. One morning when Craig was heading over to SSB (the seal
study beach) to do some work on the infrastructure there, when we got an
excited call over the radio. For a few days there had been a couple of fat
females lying on the beach next to one of the colossal males. On this
particular morning Craig had spotted a black lump lying next to one of the
females, and on closer inspection it turned out to be a pup!
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| Elephant seal mother protecting her new born pup from a brown skua that fancied a taste of umbilical cord |
We all rushed over to take a look from a distance at the
newborn. Elephant seal mothers are quite nervous, so we didn’t want to get too
close in case we scared her and she abandoned the pup. Mother and pup were
being harassed by a pair of brown skuas that saw the pups birth as a hearty
meal opportunity. The skuas kept grabbing at the pups umbilical cord trying to
rip bits off. The mother was getting very agitated with them and tried to
protect her pup as best she could. It had
been slim pickings for the skuas since they arrived back on the island
after winter, so they weren’t giving up without a fight.
Over the next couple of days the pup was joined by a second
pup, born to an adjacent female. The pups then spent most of their time
sleeping, or suckling the extremely fatty milk from their mothers. They had a
lot growing to do before their mothers left them after only a couple of weeks
of nursing. The pups seemed to grow at a huge rate (up to 3.6kg per day), and
then began moulting their black thick fur, to reveal the typical brown elephant
seal fur below.
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| I think this one was a bit surprised about being born onto a busy, noisy beach |
The mothers left the pups when they still looked far too young
to us, but the pups seemed content enough, and the smaller of the two was often
seen attempting to suckle from the other pup. Eventually they began to explore
their surroundings and paddle in the water. Recently one of them swam around to
Freshwater Beach where the base is located. Hannah and Cian (our two seal biologists)
had a close encounter with it when it decided they looked interesting and came
over to investigate them.
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| Ele pup taking a rest |
Now they are fully moulted they are ready to venture out to
sea to begin feeding themselves as they have lost a lot of weight since their
mothers left. Let’s hope that in a few years they return to Bird Island to
breed, rather than heading to the South Georgia mainland.
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| The two pups once their mums had gone back to sea. The male fur seal in the background seemed to think that they were female fur seals not two week old ele pups! |
