Movement of weaned northern elephant seal pups
during their first at-sea foraging migration

Weaned elephant seal pup with a satellite tag on his head. Activities performed and image taken under NMFS permit 27514.

The northern elephant seal is an amazing marine mammal that embarks on huge foraging migrations each year. Adult males venture all the way up the coast to Alaska, and adult females go hundreds of mile out into open ocean. Despite the extensive knowledge the scientific community has on adult migrations in this species, very little is known about where the pups go when they first leave the beach.

Northern elephant seal pups are typically born in December and January, and they nurse for 4 weeks before they are weaned. After weaning, they remain on the beach for 6-8 weeks, completing their development and occasionally swimming nearshore, or in coastal ponds and rivers. Once they get hungry enough, they leave the beach and venture into the ocean to find food. Our project aims to determine the migration pathways of weaned northern elephant seal pups during their very first foraging migration.

This year, we tagged weaned pups at Vandenberg Space Force Base (Lompoc, CA) and on San Nicolas Island, CA, to compare the migration patterns of pups born at a newly established breeding site (Vandenberg) and a long-established site (San Nicolas).

Live map of satellite tracks for 10 weanling elephant seals instrumented at Vandenberg Space Force Base and San Nicolas Island. Seals were named for celestial phenomena. Funded by Vandenberg Space Force Base. Activities conducted under NMFS permit 27514.

Disclaimer: Data points on the seals' locations vary in their accuracy. The accuracy of the data point depends on the number of signals received by the satellite, the position of the tag in relation to the satellite, and environmental conditions. We have filtered out the most inaccurate points, which is why some tracks do not have a current date. The blinking circle by the seal’s name indicates that a signal has been transmitted in the last 24 hours from that seal.

seal profiles coming soon!

Curious about last year’s satellite tagged seals? Click here to see their tracks and profiles!