We were getting so many pictures of our favourite elephant seal, “Slash” that I thought I might as well open up a page just for him. Slash has provided an excellent opportunity to study this very large marine mammal. In January 2003, two male elephant seals were hauled up on Great Race island. One was suffering from severe injuries.
This elephant seal we eventually name “Slash” and he became a docile elephant seal that hung around the main island for many years.He first sought shelter on the main Island, Great Race Rocks back in January of 2003. A boater had run over this elephant seal leaving large gashes on his head and spiral-like cuts along his body. Mike Slater, our guardian at the Rocks saw him hauled out at the end of the boat ramp and recorded the first video below. During all of 2003, he spent most of his hours sleeping up on the grassed areas of Great Race Rocks. He became very used to humans as long as one kept a respectable distance of at least 2 meters, and was prepared to move out of the way when he decided to change locations, he is very tolerant of people.
See MPA Guardian Carol Slater’s comments on these animals in the Daily log of Jan19, Feb 11, Feb13, Feb 14 and Mar 1, 2003
Here is Slash in July and August of 2003. Fortunately he has recovered well as can be seen here in this video taken by Mike Slater in July 2003
In July 2008, I took the video clip above of our resident elephant seal “Slash” asleep in one of his favourite spots behind the boathouse at Race Rocks. At 8:00 am he was in a deep sleep, interrupted only by the kelp flies on his face and a few itchy spots on his body. What was remarkable was the recurring pattern of breath holding. I made this video as a study of this aspect of what appears to be intentional sleep apnea. Since the filming was uninterrupted, one can time the various phases of a breathing cycle. Labels on the video point out the beginning and end of one such breath-holding cycle. I observed that he repeated a similar pattern for at least 15 minutes, the length of time I as was able to observe. GF.
Listen for the sounds and watch for the flaring nostrils.
You can see more elephant seal images and videos in the Elephant Seal Taxonomy.https://racerocks.ca/mirounga-angustirostris-taxonomy-and-image-file/
| “From a scientific point of view I know its bad form to anthropomorphize when considering animal behaviour. So perhaps just say that we are reserving this page for any and all aspects of the human experience with an elephant seal. |
| I thought about opening a new page after spending several days in July 2008 at Race Rocks relieving for Mike and Carol Slater when they were on holidays. I spent some quiet time with Slash, took video and many pictures and then when the spouse of faculty member Arno Dirks, Laurie Tomin took over at Race Rocks for a few days to get caught up on some writing, her e-mail provoked me to action as it had a rather nice message: ” GF
“So, back to Slash. He’s my rock star here. Not a dude of action, but of mystery and suspense. I gave up, had some lunch, and later returned to see 2 eco-tour boats ca. 10 meters off the dock and Slash–well it seemed as though he was waiting! I sat quite close, had a chat with him–for he did not seem to mind my presence at all. He looked at me occasionally, sometimes he breathed heavily through his nostrils (was he exercising them for a swim?), yep, thats all about he did. When the boats left, he moved down a bit more…and a bit more…(lots of waiting and suspense in between starts and stops). The longest and most fascinating stretch was a blubbery inch-worm movement to the water’s edge. There he sat, half in half out of the water and splashed some water on his back with his left fin. He hung out like this for about 15 minutes. Again, I sat close to him on the dock. Always with a little scramble distance–though I can’t say I was afraid at all. Wouldn’t want to scare or annoy him though! Then Slash gently slipped into the water. He looks enormous and prehistoric when he swims–also very slowly. Sometimes stopping, clearing his nostrils, looking at me. Then he swam slowly to the other side of the dock, doing much the same until he decided to swim off. Big day. I feel very lucky to be here!
 Slash on middle Island December 2009 where the entangled sea lion was trapped. See this and other pictures of Slash on Ryan Murphy’s Flickr site.
In the following years Slash failed to return in the winter. . We can assume he met his end, but we are gratefull for the many years of good memories of his presence at Race Rocks |
