After living in Northern California for more than 20 years now, I’ve had the great fortune to explore many miles of its coastline. While all of it is beautiful, some stretches of Pacific oceanfront draw me back again and again. Año Nuevo State Reserve, just 55 miles south of San Francisco and 20 miles north of Santa Cruz, is one of those places.
Nestled between the staircase steps of marine terraces forming the Santa Cruz mountains in the east and surf-kissed sandy dunes and beaches in the west, the landscape on it’s own is spectacular. But it’s the bountiful wildlife that elevates this beautiful spot to an animal lover’s mecca.
Climbing out of the car in the Visitor’s Center (VC) parking lot, you first sense the presence of wild animals in the distant sound of a bull elephant seal’s challenging roar. Meant to put would-be competitors in their place and advertise the beachmaster’s virility to nearby female Northern elephant seals, the sound creaks and ratchets like the putt-putt of a poorly-tuned outboard motor engine echoing through a giant cave.
Inside the VC you check in for your guided tour (the only way to see the seals from December 15th through March 31st) or your visitor’s permit (available for self-guided tours the remainder of the year). Then you can explore the wonderful books and stuffed animals offered in the store, and work your way through the VC exhibits, which explore the fascinating lives and evolutionary adaptations of the Northern elephant seal.
The VC’s well-designed and informative exhibits discuss the lifecycle of the elephant seals, which start out as 70 pound newborns, weigh around 200 pounds by the time they are a month old, and eventually grow into 1800 pound females and 3000 pound males. The exhibits include photos that show beaches packed with massive light-brown bodies that at first glance look like driftwood logs. But it can’t really prepare you for the sight, sounds, and smells you experience out in the field when you crest the dunes overlooking the beaches where hundreds of Northern elephant seals are giving birth, nursing their young, and breeding next year’s crop of pups.
In past years I’ve taken the tour on typical cold-and-damp or downright soggy January and February days. This year I was in short sleeves, slathered with sunblock, and was able to see and photograph more detail than I’ve observed in the past.
Among the volunteers, researchers, rangers, and other habitual seal-watchers who visit the reserve frequently, the elephant seals have a reputation for being more active on cooler, overcast days, so I was concerned that the cloudless skies and warm breeze on February 1, 2009 might actually work against us.
But as soon as we topped the first ridge in the dunes field, the cacaphony of roaring males, bleating pups, and exasperated females assaulted my ears. In the distance, a pair of subadult males reared up and smashed their chests against each other, fighting for supremacy. A scattering of what looked like driftwood logs closer to me sent up fountains of dry sand to cover their backs, and my eyes finally perceived dozens upon dozens upon dozens of prone elephant seals.
Keeping our voices low in spite of our enthusiasm, we followed our guide through the dunes, checking in all directions for seals -- they move around quite a bit, and the Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that observations be done from a distance which does not disturb the animal or change its natural behavior, quite aside from the fact that they have sharp teeth and short tempers. We stopped at half-a-dozen spots with good views of the rookery, and were able to observe behavior beyond napping, (which was the prevalent activity on most of my previous visits), including:
- Subadult males displaying at each other and “practice-fighting,” smashing chest shields together and swiping at each other with sharp canines. (You can tell subadult males by their noses, which have begun to elongate but haven’t yet grown into the full “elephant trunk” appearance they’ll have if they reach maturity.)
- Pups nuzzling moms to request a nipple, and moms either rolling over to grant the request, or barking peevishly and moving away a little. The mother’s milk is about 55% fat, and pups grow from 70 pounds to more than 200 pounds in about 28 days drinking it! We saw some females barking at other adults that were getting alarmingly close to their pups, and others barking gently at their pups to solidify the mother-pup bond.
- Adult males roaring challenges to each other, and a few times saw them engaged in some chest-bashing, and heard reports that there had been a couple of “good fights” (meaning the males were well-matched, and the bashing and slashing went on for several minutes, resulting in some minor bloodshed) earlier in the day.
- Bull males accosting females, but the females dodged all of the mating attempts that I saw.
- Both youngsters and adults scratching themselves with their amazingly dextrous front fins, and throwing up fountains of sand to cover their backs. After decades of observation, researchers still don’t know if covering themselves with sand helps keep the elephant seals cool, or reduces itching caused by insects, or acts as a sunblock, or what.
- Dozens of gulls and ravens (no vultures, although our guide said they usually could be seen circling overhead) flapping and hopping amidst the huge marine mammals, beady eyes on the lookout for the first signs of a birth in progress. (The birds will swoop in and carry off the very nutritious afterbirth.) We did not, alas, see an actual birth, although some of the pups we observed were obviously just a few hours old.
Most surprising of all, we saw a coyote down on one of the beaches, walking nonchalantly amongst all the enormous pinnipeds, many of which could have crushed it in the blink of an eye. Although coyotes are common in the reserve, that was the first time our guide had seen one walking around among the elephant seals, and speculated that it must, like the birds, be scavenging for afterbirths and the remains of dead seals.
Although the elephant seals only breed during the first few months of they year, you’ll see various factions of the population on the beach during other seasons, resting and molting in between months-long feeding forays out to sea. For more information, visit http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=523.
