New Baby Elephant Seal

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Typically the newborn Elephant Seals don’t move their heads around much after birth, but this new pup seems to have something to prove.

Jocelyn decided to give birth this morning, after spending 5 days sussing out the island. This is the same time spent on land as the other mom this breeding season, and the same timeline this seal had last year. These seals having remarkably consistent timing!

The new pup seems incredibly well developed and mobile, and immediately after getting born started squawk-chirping this our resident wean-ling Mikey. While some Elephant Seal mom’s can be very protective of their young, Jocelyn seems very chill about having another pup hanging out around her.

Our current Elephant Seal family, not shown here the grumpy Beachmaster who only wants to mate. Shows the difference between a newborn pup and a 28 day old weanling.

Elephant Seal Swapping

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Mikey is all on his own, exploring the island mouth-first and trying to avoid running into the angry Beachmaster.

Ecological Notes:

Beverly wrapped up her time nursing her pup, mated a couple of times, and headed back to the open ocean to recover her lost weight. She spent 27 days on land, nursing her pup for 21 days, the exact same number of days as last year. She has remarkably consistent timing.

Beverly and Micheal Day 1. Starting around 500kg she’ll end up losing around 200kg throughout nursing.

Beverly and Micheal Day 21. Beverly has lost around 40% of her weight throughout nursing.

The next working we woke up to the bellowing of a new pregnant elephant seal, timing and characteristics point to this seal being Jocelyn (another return from last year), but she is not tagged, so we’re guessing that it’s her by comparing photos of identifying scars. This is a day later than she showed up last year, and we’re excited at the prospect of another elephant seal pup! After 5 pups last year the thought of only having one pup born here was pretty disappointing.

The seal we suspect is Jocelyn, she is soooo big I’m surprised she could make it up the ramp.

For those interested, the Beachmaster mated with Beverly 27 times 4 days (that were noticed/documented). It’s an impressive feat for sure, but seems to depend on the exhaustion that sets in towards the end of nursing. On bigger beaches a Bachmaster can have a harmem of 30-100 females, so only having 1 or 2 females to mate with could be related to our males ‘vigour’.

Elephant Seal mating can be pretty unpleasant to watch sometimes, but it’s clearly a method that works for them or the population wouldn’t have recovered from near-extinction.

Facility Work:

After last weeks 50 knot blasting, we spent this week repairing the electric fence and picking up the pieces that blew off the buildings. We’ve had some massive high tides, as well as some logs piling up on the jetty. I’m still unsure what the actualy conditions are that contribute to the log pileup, but we made sure to snag some good looking firewood logs for next winters Eco-Guardians.

Beverly navigating the log-jam on the boat ramp.

DND events:

2 days with blasting since the last update, but it’s been very quiet. We did see Coast Guard heading offshore during the big blows, practice makes perfect!

Feature Event:

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Flat calm weather and winds under 3 knots have been delightful the last couple of nights. We’re still trying to figure out how you can get a crystal clear sky, and enough fog to set off the fog horn…

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Last weeks wind scouring led to this weeks flat calm, perfect time to pick up the pieces and get ready for whenever the next storm rolls through.

 

Weaning for Elephant Seals consists of abandoning their pups on the beach. Mikey didn’t enjoy that much, and screamed for the whole first night before accepting his independence.

census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                          18
  • Bald eagle juvenile                       7
  • Turnstones                                    29
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    186
  • Cormorants                                  106
  • Canadian goose                             0
  • Harlequin Ducks                            2

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                           107
  • Harbour seal                               15
  • California sea lion                     153
  • Northern Elephant Seal              3

Census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                           8
  • Bald eagle juvenile                       6
  • Turnstones                                  29
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western     96
  • Cormorants                                  3
  • Canadian goose                           0

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                           0
  • Harbour seal                              0
  • California sea lion                      85
  • Northern Elephant Seal              3

*40 knot winds and an extremely high tide likely contributed to the lower wildlife counts.

Happy New Year from Race Rocks!

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Coming into 2022, the snow is melting and the elephant seal pup is getting faaaaat.

Mikey has ballooned from his starting weight (around 50lbs) to his current blubbery size around 200lbs, quadrupling his size in 10 days. It’s pretty remarkable to see the massive increase in size for this little seal pup, and you can see the calories flowing from his mom into the pup.

Day 1 for Mikey the Elephant Seal pup

Day 10 of Mikey the Elephant Seal Pup

As Beverly gets closer to weaning her pup (typically they nurse for 20 days), the Beachmaster is getting increasingly interested in mating. Last year Bev didn’t start mating until the last 2 days of nursing, which means we are expecting anther week until the mating starts.

 

The Race Rocks Beachmaster checking to see if Beverly is ready to mate yet. We are expecting another week until she’s interested.

One of the more ‘stressful’ events during this time is the Beachmaster checking on the pup. This involves mouthing the pup, which looks like the pup is going to get bit, but I think it’s more of a full contact smell than an actual bite. Last year this was alarming when this 4000lb seal would roll up on a little 200lb pup, but as we saw Bev mating with this same Beachmaster, odds are that the pup is his, and to date none of the mouthing has resulted in any damage to the pup.

We’ve found it incredibly interesting to watch Beverly raise her pups on Race Rocks, and the way she used to geography of the island to protect her pup. Bev uses the steps and walkway right outside of the eco-guardian house as a kind of fortification around her pup. When the Beachmaster comes up to check on Bev and her pup he can’t climb up the steps , and also can’t really get at the pup when he’s wedged on the ledge. This buys her time to get the pup nice and big before starting to adventure around the island with him, which started on day 9.

Bev’s magic ledge of protection.

 

 

December 29th – A Break in the Snow

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Ecological Notes:

First things first: the new Elephant Seal pup is doing great! 8 days old today, very vocal and mobile; especially when compared to last years pups. The seal pup doesn’t seem to mind the cold, and we’re reached the point of nursing where the mom starts moving around throughout the day. Maybe to stimulate the pup to get moving and muscle-y, or maybe to get a break from the nursing.

The Beachmaster left the island after the first 2 days of snow. He was spotting wallowing around Race Rocks, so maybe just using the warmer ocean water rather than sitting on land getting snowed on.

Once the snow stopped falling we had a shift in birds, with 12-20 eagles spotted in the early mornings feeding on what looks like bits of other birds. Maybe the cold was enough to provide some good food for all those eagles. Prior to the snow we were seeing 3-5 eagles in the mornings.

The California and Steller Sea Lions have been moving around the islands trying to find spots where they can group up and keep warm. This has provided an opportunity for the Harbour Seals to haul out, something that we don’t see much with the available real-estate claimed by the larger sea lions. It’s funny to me that the seals choose to be on land when the sea lions choose to hang out in the water.

Facility Work:

We have been fighting to keep things unfrozen for the last week, with temperatures dropping the water pipes froze and we’re working to keep the desalinator and other infrastructure from freezing as well. Shovelling walkways and keeping things snow free.

DND events:

Real quiet on the DND front. No boats or blasting over the holidays.

Weather Events:

The snow showed up Christmas night, heralded by the foghorn. Not much snow lands on Race Rocks when it’s blowing, and the cold (around -5 to -7 for a few days) kept the snow nice and powdery, perfect to be swept!

30-40 knot winds and cold weather have made us VERY appreciative of the new windows in the Eco-Guardian house, significantly improving the insulation.

 

Weather – Current: 

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?

Census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                           8
  • Bald eagle juvenile                       6
  • Turnstones                                   4
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western     38
  • Cormorants                                 95
  • Canadian goose                             0

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                           94
  • Harbour seal                              33
  • California sea lion                      81

  • Northern Elephant Seal              3

Census

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Birds

  • Bald eagle adult                            1
  • Bald eagle juvenile                       2
  • Turnstones                                    28
  • Gulls, Glaucous and Western    31
  • Cormorants                                   50
  • Canadian goose                             6

Mammals

  • Steller sea lion                           119
  • Harbour seal                                4
  • California sea lion                     101

  • Northern Elephant Seal             3

First Elephant Seal Pup of the Season!

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It’s that magical time of year where the Northern Elephant Seals come ashore and give birth! Our first mom is the same female who showed up first last year, Pink Tag 2 (who we affectionately call Bev), who came ashore on December 15th. After several days of being sassy and pregnant she gave birth to a new male pup on December 21st.

Bev seems to have a purposeful strategy showing up and birthing before the other females. Last season Bev showed up almost a month before the other moms, and left before the other moms were even getting ready to birth. By this time her pup was pretty huge and mobile. She gave birth last year on December 22 2020, so pretty much on schedule with what she did last year.

One of the first big hurdles for newborn pups is just figuring out just how to nurse, some pups take days to figure this out, but not this first pup: he was nursing within hours of being born is already looking plumper than when he was born.

A view from the top

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Ecological Notes:

  • 1 Female Elephant Seal
  • 1 Male Elephant Seal, appears to be last year’s Beachmaster
  • First time I’ve personally noticed this type of tag …. On the Female Elephant Seal

Tag with holes in a pattern

 

harlequin ducks

Facility Work:

  • Cleaning and firewood prep for the next Ecoguardians
  • Looks like tomorrow morning will be all about clearing the pier area of debris and redoing the electric fence. The swells and incoming wind knocked concrete blocks right off the pier.

DND events:

  • 2 days of blasting with noticeable reactions from the Scea Lions.

Noted Vessel Traffic:

  • 3 different Ecotourism vessels
  • Several Sailboats back and forth, cutting between the reserve and Bentinck Island

 Feature Event:

  • Took a few Pictures from the top of the light while I was doing the animal Census.

 

Weather Events:

  • Mostly average winds from the west. Wednesday greeted us with 30-40 knot southeasterly wind, with very large swells!

 

** All wildlife photos taken at the furthest distance possible, and may be cropped to improve detail! **

 

Weather – Current:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/current.php?id=72

 

Weather – Past:

http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?