To put it plainly, baby elephant seals aka weaners are beyond adorable. Their big brown eyes and round chubby faces & bodies are the epitome of cute. However, they have probably one of the toughest beginnings of life than other marine mammals.
A lot of other mammals have some sort of parental care during the first few months or longer of their lives. However, for these little guys the parental care from their mother is usually for about 23 days and then they are on their own. I kid you not...
In South Georgia, where the majority of the species breeding population can be found the following is their typical life cycle. The pregnant females will flop/crawl their way onto their birthing/breeding beaches sometime in November, give birth within a few days and then proceed to nurse their young pups for about 23 days before heading back to the ocean for their foraging grounds never to return until the following November. Typically, they will mate with the dominant male aka beach master a few days prior to departing. The young weaners will continue to lay on the beach and surrounding rocky points for a few months after this before making their way into the ocean to work out what life is all about.
This little guy was staring at me whilst drooling a way, which was probably one of the funniest and most adorable sights I have seen in quite some time. I hope to return to this region again on South Georgia at the end of year to photograph more cute weaners.
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