These animals are big but they have a face that is somewhat adorable and if it wasn’t for the fact they get to about 3,000kgs|7,000lbs I would consider taking one home. Well, that and they smell pretty bad, have quite a bad temper around anyone or anything else and they need deep, deep water to swim and survive in.
Their first year of life though is actually pretty damn tough - especially for the population that lives on the South Shetland Islands on the Antarctic Peninsula. First of all, their mothers only nurse them and give parental care for 23 days and that is it. She is done and leaves. Then this little one will molt into their sub-adult coat and have to work out life for itself and due to their naive nature predators get them quite easily.
It’s estimated that the mortality rate of some elephant seal populations in their first year is around 95%!!!
Talk about a rough first year for these guys to survive… I am quite impressed!
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