Elephant seals born on Middle Rocks at Race Rocks,2009

Posted on by
Subject: Possible baby Elly on Middle Rock Also:
Although the Elephant Seal haulout on middle rock is over 500 metres away, from the remote camera5 we have been watching the other females still out there in the last few days… and now finally today ……..
Feb 3 10:02 AM. e-mail Exchange:

From Pam: Morning Garry…..have just been watching the middle rock with Slash and the two females.
I believe there MAY be a baby with them.  I’m attaching  a couple of blurry shots because I could not get a really clear view.  However, if you look to the left of Slash you will see a small dark shape.  In one pic it looks as though it has its mouth open, showing the red inside and in the other shot it had moved.   What do you think?   Could it be that the “injured” ES came up on to the rock to give birth?

Pam 12:22 PM – I’ve been watching for about 20 mins and am pretty sure there is an infant there, suckling from the ES with the scars.

Garry-12:28 PM-Pam I think you’re right.  and there’s a patch of blood on the top of the rock as well.. I have predicted there will be three babies from these three females as all look to be at the same level of maturity.
 
Pam-12:51 PM- Just came back up here to the computer.  Three eagles were fighting over something – most likely the placenta.  I noticed the red patch of possibly blood too.  Attached three more pics I took earlier.  Two of them show the pup feeding and the other (again very blurry) showing its head just popping up in silhouette.
Ryan – 1:08 PM- Yes, from Pam’s photo I’d definitely say that there is another baby out there.  I’ll see if I can get any closer photos later today. Ryan 2:39 PM-Lots of eagles out there for sure, certainly showing more interest over there than when the pup was born here.But Pam’s pics definitely show a new live pup out there, so that makes 2 at least!
In the picture above, an eagle is eating near the elephant seals for a few hours in the afternoon. So we think that there is at least one and maybe two more pups on the Middle Island.. More tomorow..
(click on this image to enlarge)e-mail From: Ryan
Subject: a clear shot on a clear day
Date: February 4, 2009 9:38:36 AM PST (CA)
Beautiful day out here, got this clear shot of the pup between both females.  Hard to say which is the mom, I think both have milk on their muzzles, so….?Ryan
At 4:00 PM of Feb 4. The new pup was doing well here seen on he left. Up to 5 eagles were also close by eating the afterbirth or perhaps another dead pup.. The following are from remote cam5.
And eventually by the end of the day on Feb 4, elephant seal pup 2 was on fine display and the scavenger ravens and bald eagles were still hanging around. Ryan was able to zoom in with his telephoto from Great Race Rocks to get these great shots.
In the next few days, the eagles were eating away at something and the young one shown above had disappeared. It is unfortunate they tried to have pups on this Middle island since there is just not very much room.  It is also possible that easterly winds washed the young off the Middle rocks as they are so exposed. So Ninene ended up as the only surviving pup this year, We believe that three pups were born in all at Race Rocks this year. This is the first record for any births this far north as far as we can determine.See the pups born on Middle Rocks in 2010

See the Elephant seal index Gallery and Taxonomy