Elephant Seals Fight to Near Death. Question: Male Elephant Seals Routinely Fight (sometimes To The Death) In Order To Mate With Large Groups Of Female Elephant Seals. The elephant seal is almost entirely aquatic, coming ashore primarily to breed. The type of molt which an elephant seal undergoes is a catastrophic molt. Elephant seals that are outfitted with satellite tags can be tracked. They only come together while mating where their violent behavior is exposed while males are fighting for females. Diet. Elephant seals, although their name says, aren't really related to elephants! Very big. What Kind Of Mating Behavior Is This An Example Of? ... An easily avoided fight can mean life or death for the seal. Instead, they keep watch over the land territory. Do not feed the squirrels. Keep dogs on a leash and well away from the seals. The Big Fight. Polygandry Monogamy Intersexual Selection Intrasexual Selection In general, males are seven or eight times heavier than females and can be twice as long. “It’s not advantageous for males to fight all the time,” says Caroline Casey, a researcher at the UC Santa Cruz. Posted on February 2, 2012 by lcowlesphotography. She says fights can be risky. They are just seals with elephant trunks. Elephant Seal Habitat and Diet. While they are not mating, elephant seals prefer to stay by themselves. “Sometimes they can result in death and we’ve seen that,” she says. Elephant seals migrate in search of food, spending months at sea and often diving deep to forage. They return to their rookeries in winter to breed and give birth. Sensors carried by elephant seals collect and store data over time. Female elephant seals don't have the trunks. Elephant seals are big. Elephant seals are protected by federal law. Dogs and seals do not mix. When the elephant seals arrive at their breeding beaches in Mexico and California, adult males can be seen fighting each other and producing loud nasal calls to establish dominance. Northern elephant seals — scientific name Mirounga angustirostris — typically spend nine months of each year in the ocean, dining mainly on squid and fish. Elephant seals also don’t eat while on land, so they need to conserve energy. When a tagged animal comes to the surface for a breath of air, stored data transmits upward to an orbiting satellite. Its range is mostly in warm waters. While this is taking place, the bulls actually cease fighting with one another. Over the winter, the males do not hunt. Skip to main content. Polar-orbiting satellites like the ARGOS satellite orbit the Earth in about 90 minutes. They have elephant-like trunks and are very blubbery. Elephant seals are similar to walruses, in the seal family. It is illegal to touch, throw things or cause a reaction from any marine mammal. 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