We went out to Año Nuevo State Reserve, 55 mile south of San Francisco and the site of the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal, so named for their large size and the protruding nose seen on the males. The huge males battle each other to establish dominance; those successful do most of the breeding. At Año Nuevo SR, people are taken out on guided walks to get within 25 feet of some of the seals. A male elephant seal will plow down anything between him and an opposing male, including baby seals and humans, so the guided walks keep the humans from getting in the way of an angry male elephant seal. This is an image from one of the battles we witnessed during the small time we were watching - you can see why the males all have large patches of scarring on their necks and bodies. It was quite an experience to see the throngs of elephant seals out there on the beach and the males scooting about and fighting each other - I will place some more photos from the trip in my portfolio for those interested.
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