I have elephant seals to research. I started by looking at some youtube videos:
The males can grow up to 20 ft long, and weigh over 8000 pounds. They use their nose to mark their territory. Only 1 in 10 males will become and alpha male and father pups. They are incredibly violent, and have to fight other seals in order to reproduce. National Geographic
There are two species of elephant seals, the northern and southern. Northern elephant seals can be found in California and Baja California, though they prefer to frequent offshore islands rather than the North American mainland.
Southern elephant seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters that feature brutally cold conditions but are rich in the fish, squid, and other marine foods these seals enjoy. Southern elephant seals breed on land but spend their winters in the frigid Antarctic waters near the Antarctic pack ice.
Southern elephants are the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet (6 meters) long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms). But these massive pinnipeds aren't called elephant seals because of their size. They take their name from their trunklike inflatable snouts.
When breeding season arrives, male elephant seals define and defend territories. They collect a harem of 40 to 50 females, which are much smaller than their enormous mates. Males battle each other for mating dominance. Some encounters end with roaring and aggressive posturing, but many others turn into violent and bloody battles.
Sea elephants, as these seals are sometimes called, give birth in late winter to a single pup and nurse it for approximately a month. While suckling their young, females do not eat—both mother and child live off the energy stored in ample reserves of her blubber. Females give birth to a single pup each year after an 11-month pregnancy.
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. Though both male and female elephant seals spend time at sea, their migration routes and feeding habits differ: Males follow a more consistent route while females vary their routes in pursuit of moving prey.
Elephant seals were aggressively hunted for their oil, and their numbers were once reduced to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, populations have rebounded under legal protections.
Disover Wildlife Discover Wildlife is a magazine, and I thought it would be good to research it to see if I could aim my double page spread at this market, as I need to know what tone of voice to use.
IN THIS EXCITING ISSUE:
Secrets of the desert leopard
Conservationist Tessa McGregor is on the trail of a mysterious cat that lives in a land of sand.
Dance of the black guillemots
Photographer Cornelius Nelo introduces the handsome, home-loving birds of Iceland.
Saving the Indian rhino
Andrew Balmford reports from the front line of the anti-poaching war in Assam.
Culling: pros and cons
James Fair asks why we want to control wildlife, and considers the case against the species in the firing line.
Botswana’s Okavango Delta
Editor Sophie Stafford finds out where all the wild things have really gone.
Nature writer of the year
Get scribbling for your chance to win a place on an Earthwatch expedition to Madagascar.
Agenda
More protection for polar bears, beavers increase on the Tay and the truth about wildlife film-making. Plus Mark Carwardine on the plight of the lion, and this month in 1975.
Portfolio: Arabian seas
Here be sharks, turtles, sea snakes and more... Thomas P Peschak captures the astonishing diversity of these little-known waters.
Books
March’s best reads, and poet and author Ruth Padel reveals her favourite book.
Tales from the Bush
Cage-diving with great whites, for art’s sake.
The Big Question: how do animals flock?
How are animals such as starlings and fish able to move with such synchronicity?
Polar Expedition Voyages
Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic Islands are some of the planet’s last truly unspoilt regions. The enigmatic White Continent – a remote land of multi-coloured ice caps, glistening glaciers and towering, snow-capped mountains – offers unparalleled scenery and a myriad of photographic opportunities. Large numbers of whales, seals, penguins and other seabirds congregate in the nutrient-rich waters along their shores.
During the austral summer, expedition ships with ice-strengthened hulls allow safe navigation along the narrow waterways and through the pack ice. Expertly guided excursions in Zodiacs, allow you to explore remote locations and see the abundant wildlife.
Falkland Islands This archipelago of some 800 islands is a delight for nature lovers and photographers - full of wildlife with vast colonies of black-browed albatross, five species of penguin, elephant seals and much more. In addition the islands offer fine scenery, good hiking and the warm hospitality of the Falklanders.
The islands have a cool oceanic climate with frequent strong winds due to their location in the stormy latitudes known as the Roaring Forties. Temperatures range between 5° and 10°C and although there is little rainfall, rain and sleet can occur any time of the year
Elephant seals (also sea elephants) are large, oceangoing seals in the genusMirounga. The two species, the northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris) and the southern elephant seal (M. leonina), both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered.
The northern elephant seal, somewhat smaller than its southern relative, ranges over the Pacific coast of the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The most northerly breeding location on the Pacific Coast is at Race Rocks, at the southern tip of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The southern elephant seal is found in the Southern Hemisphere on islands such as South Georgia and Macquarie Island, and on the coasts of New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina in the Peninsula Valdés, which is the fourth-largest elephant seal colony in the world. Fossils of an as yet unnamed species of Mirounga have been found in South Africa, and dated to the Miocene epoch.[1]
Elephant seals breed annually and are seemingly faithful to colonies that have been established breeding areas.
The Northern Elephant Seal, Mirounga angustirostris, is an extraordinary marine mammal. It spends eight to ten months a year in the open ocean, diving 1000 to 5000 feet deep for periods of fifteen minutes to two hours, and migrating thousands of miles, twice a year, to its land based rookery for birthing, breeding, molting and rest. The Piedras Blancas rookery, on Highway 1 seven miles north of San Simeon on the California Central Coast, is home to about 17,000 animals. The area is open for viewing every day of the year and there is no admission fee or reservation required.
The breeding season begins in late November when mature bulls begin to arrive and fight to determine dominance. The females start arriving in the middle of December and continue to arrive until the middle of February. The first birth is around Christmas, but most births usually occur during the last two weeks of January. The females remain on the beach for about five weeks from the time they come ashore. Amazingly, the males are on the beach for up to 100 days. The seals are fasting while they are on land, and both males and females lose about 1/3 of their body weight during the breeding season.
Elephant seals form harems, in which the dominant, or alpha, male is surrounded by a group of females. On the periphery of the harem, the beta bulls wait in hopes of an opportunity to mate. They assist the alpha bull in keeping away the less dominant males. Fights between males can be bloody affairs in which the combatants rear up and slam their bodies against each other, slashing with their large canine teeth. However, not all confrontations end in battle. Rearing up on their hindquarters, throwing back their heads, showing off the size of their noses and bellowing threats is enough to intimidate most challengers. When battles do occur, it is rarely to the death.
The rookery is a very noisy place during the breeding season as males bellow threat vocalizations, pups squawk to be fed, and females squabble with each other over prime location and pups. Gargles, grunts, snorts, belches, bleats, whimpers, squeaks, squeals, and the male trumpeting combine to create the elephant seal symphony of sound.
The pups are usually born within 4-5 days of the female's arrival, and weigh between 60-80 pounds. They nurse for 24-28 days on the richest milk in the mammal world. Mating occurs during the last 2-3 days of nursing. The peak of mating activity is around Valentine's Day. Pups are weaned when the mother abruptly departs for sea. The weaned pups, dubbed "weaners," have quadrupled their birthweight and are nice and plump. They will lose about one-third of their weight during the "weaner fast," the 8-10 weeks they remain at the rookery, teaching themselves how to swim, before taking off on their first foraging trip.
While elephant seals are at sea in search of food they dive to incredible depths. Typically they dive between 1000-2000 feet, but the record is over 5000 feet. The average length of dive is 20 minutes, but they can dive for an hour or longer. When they resurface they only spend 2-3 minutes before diving again - and they continue this diving pattern 24 hours a day. Male and female elephant seals are believed to feed on different prey. The female diet is primarily squid and the male diet is more varied, comprised of small sharks, rays and other bottom-dwelling fish. In their search for food the males travel along the continental shelf to the Gulf of Alaska. The females tend to head north and west into more open ocean. Elephant seals make this migration twice a year, also coming back to the rookery to molt in late spring and the summer time. These two migrations total up to eight to twelve thousand miles of travel annually.
Human beings shed hair and skin all the time, but elephant seals go through a catastrophic molt, in which the entire layer of epidermis with the hairs attached is sloughed off in one concentrated time. The reason for this abrupt molt is that while at sea they spend most of their time in cold deep water. As part of the dive process the blood is diverted away from the skin. This helps them conserve energy and avoid losing body heat. By coming up on land to molt the blood can be circulated to the skin so a new layer of epidermis and hair can be grown.
Elephant seals are sexually dimorphic: the males are much larger than the females and only the males develop the long noses and chest shield. Females grow to 9-12 feet and weigh between 900-1800 pounds. Males grow to 14-16 feet long and weigh in at 3000-5000 pounds, or more. Female elephant seals give birth for the first time around 4 years old, though the range is between 2-6 years of age. Females are considered physically mature at age 6 and can live to a maximum of 20 years. Males enter puberty around 4 years of age, at which time the nose starts to grow. The nose is a secondary sexual characteristic, like a man's beard, and can reach the astonishing length of 2 feet. Males reach physical maturity around 9 years old. Prime breeding age is 9-12, and they can live to a maximum of 14 years.
What is an elephant seal? A deep-sea diver, a long distance traveler, an animal that fasts for long periods of time, elephant seals are extraordinary. They come together on land to give birth, mate, and molt but at sea they are solitary. Tremendous demands are placed on their bodies. The more you learn about these animals the more you will say WOW!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do they flip sand?
With all that blubber, their bodies are designed to keep warm in cold water. Sand flipping helps them keep cool on land by acting as a sun screen. In addition, they sometimes can be seen flipping sand under stressful conditions.
Where are the big males?
The large males, those with the big noses that give elephant seals their name, are only on the beach in July-August to molt and in December-March for the birthing and breeding seasons. They spend most of the year foraging off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
Who are their predators?
Great white sharks and killer whales (Orcas) prey on elephant seals as well as other marine life. Great whites attack from below with most attacks occurring near the surface. If the bite is superficial, the seal may escape. Sometimes you can see e-seals with scars showing they had a near-miss encounter with a shark. Predation by orcas has been documented less frequently.
Are there sharks offshore?
Yes. Great white sharks are found in temperate coastal waters world-wide including off the Central Coast. Seals with fresh shark bites or shark bitten otter carcasses are seen sometimes along this coast but it isn’t believed that there is a large population of great whites in the area. At this time, they are not specifically targeting this rookery. Ano Nuevo, near Santa Cruz, has been a rookery since the early 50s and the sharks do seem to target it for part of the each year.
Are elephant seals here all year?
Yes, there are always some elephant seals here although they become very sparse in August and September. Individually, each seal is normally here twice a year for approximately one month each time with the exception of the adult males who are here for one month in summer and three months in December-March.
Why do adult males have a large nose?
The large nose is a secondary sexual characteristic indicating physical and sexual maturity. Large body size, large nose, and a deep booming voice sometimes serve to intimidate challengers thus avoiding energy depleting fights.
Are females pregnant for 11 months?
Technically yes. However, there is a delayed implantation of the embryo: the fertilized egg divides a few times and then just floats in the uterus. This allows the mother, who has lost over a third of her body weight feeding her recently delivered baby and herself with metabolized blubber, to regains some of that weight before the new fetus begins to grow. After three to four months, the blastocyst attaches to the uterine wall and begins growing again. Some experts believe that the hormones directing implantation are activated at the end of the molt. The eleven month gestation also serves to synchronize the births to the same time every year.
How long do they live?
Males can live to 14; females to 20. But only a few live that long. Only one in seven pups lives to 4 years old.
Why do they molt at the rookery?
Skin cells, of elephant seals or humans, take a real beating and need to be replaced. For humans, the process is continuous throughout the year - we shed and grow about nine pounds of skin cells each year. Because growing new skin cells requires circulating blood outside the blubber layer, elephant seals grow their new skin during a few weeks each year on the beach, where the loss of body heat is much less than would occur in the ocean.
What do they eat?
Females, who eat in the deep ocean, eat primarily squid. Males who forage over the continental shelf eat bottom dwelling species such as ratfish, hagfish, Pacific hake, rays, skates, and small sharks. Many of the things they eat are bioluminescent. They also swallow their prey whole and digest it in about six hours.
How much time do they spend at sea?
Adult and sub-adult males spend eight to nine months at sea; females and juveniles of both sexes spend ten months. Their dives last from twenty minutes to over an hour with only two to four minutes at the surface between dives. They do this their entire time at sea so they spend about 90% of their time at sea under water.
How deep do they dive?
The normally dive 1,000 to 2,000 feet but can go as deep as 5,000 feet. When they dive, they swim only for the first one hundred feet and coast for the remainder.
How do they stay down so long?
Elephant seals have a number of unusual adaptations which allow them to dive so deep and stay under so long. They must exhale before they dive to avoid the bends (an affliction caused by the absorption of gas by the cells at high pressure) so all the oxygen they have is that in the blood (in hemoglobin in the red blood cells) and in the muscle (in myoglobin). Their blood volume is twice that of a land mammal their size and that blood is 50% richer in hemoglobin.
In addition, they undergo significant physiological changes as part of their diving reflex. Their heart beat slows from 55-120 beats per minute to 4-15 beats per minute. They are able to divert the flow of blood from their extremities and restrict it to just their vital internal organs. These changes allow them to use less oxygen.
Do mothers have just one pup?
If twining occurs in northern elephant seals at all, it is very rare. It is documented in southern elephant seals, close relatives. As the mother loses one-third of her body weight while on the beach giving birth to a single pup and nursing it to 300 pounds, it is clear that twining would not be advantageous.
Do big males fight to the death?
Rarely. As beach dominance is established in December and during the breeding season in February, bulls often battle each other. These confrontations are often bloody but rarely result in serious injury. The neck and chest area of a large bull is protected by a calloused shield and a thick layer of blubber. Fights can last from just a few minutes to half an hour, depending upon how evenly matched the bulls are. On occasion, a broken jaw or blinded eye from such fights may eventually lead to death because they would impair foraging. Almost all mortality occurs at sea.
The younger males, often seen sparring either on the beach or in the shallow waters off shore, are learning how to fight but for them, as for other young male mammals, this is playing rather than fighting and animals are very seldom injured in this activity.
Why did they start coming to this rookery?
As the elephant seals rebounded from near-extinction, (see Introduction for details) they first established colonies on the islands offshore Baja California and California. As these rookeries became crowded, they began colonizing mainland beaches. They began coming here in 1990, populated initially by seals from San Miguel Island, San Nicolas Island, and Ano Nuevo. We still see seals at this rookery who were born elsewhere.
Elephant seals like large sandy beaches that do not have a significant human presence. They prefer south facing beaches with protection from northwest storms. The shallow waters protected from breakers provide areas where the weaned pups can learn to swim and older males can spar. The kelp forest not far off shore and the rapid drop-off of the sea bed protect the seals from predators.
Are they dead? Why do they just lie there?
People often think that seals on the beach are dead because they are not moving or breathing. They will often stop breathing and dramatically lower their heart rate – as they do routinely at sea – for periods of a few minutes to half an hour. That apnea and their general inactivity are ways of conserving energy. During the time they are on shore, which occurs only in the rookery, they are fasting and relying on their stored fat to meet their water and energy needs.
Do mothers meet up with their babies the next year?
Seals usually return to the beach where they were born but we don’t know if they recognize each other. It does not appear so.
How fast do they normally move in water?
It is estimated that they swim at speeds of 10 to 15 mph. En route to the feeding grounds, they cover around 60 miles a day, diving and foraging as they go.
How fast can they move on land?
While they seldom move rapidly at all on land, when they perceive a threat to themselves or the harem, they can move on soft sand faster than most humans.
Do big males hurt the babies?
It is very unusual for a big male to deliberately hurt a baby. However, babies can be accidentally injured or killed if they are in the way when a large male is defending his harem from another bull.
Do they go out in the ocean to eat?
They do not eat while at the rookery. Except for an occasional relocation within the rookery, and males sparring or fighting in the shallow water just off shore, they do not go in the water at all. They rely on metabolized blubber for energy and water.
How many females are in a harem?
The number of females in a harem varies according to the topography of the beach. There can be as few as 10 and as many as 50 surrounding an alpha male. He provides protection from the amorous attention of other males.
How old are they when they begin reproducing?
Males enter puberty around 4 years of age but they don’t reach their full physical growth until they are around 9. At that time they are big enough to become serious contenders for beach territory. Some males never win enough fights to ever be able to breed. Prime breeding age is between 9 and 12.
Females normally begin reproducing around age 4 although some begin as young as 2 or delay to as late as 6. They become physically mature and stop growing in length at age 6.
Do they come back to the same rookery each year?
It appears that elephant seals generally return to the beaches where they were born. However, overcrowding or failure to successfully wean a pup can prompt them to move to another rookery.
How big are they?
Large males are 14 to 16 feet in length and weigh between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds. Adult females are 9 to 12 feet in length and weigh between 900 and 1,800 pounds. Pups are 3 to 4 feet long and weigh 60 to 80 pounds at birth.
While sailing along the Pacific coast in the 1800s, a whale
and seal hunter named Charles Scammon reported seeing northern elephant seals
from Baja California in Mexico to Point Reyes in California. Sharing the fate
of many of the oceans' great whales, the elephant seals were hunted to the
brink of extinction for their oil-rich blubber. One bull elephant seal would
yield nearly 25 gallons of oil. Though we don't know exactly how many
northern elephant seals were alive before the 20th Century, it has been
estimated that fewer than 1,000 northern elephant seals existed by 1910. In
1922, the Mexican government banned hunting, followed shortly thereafter by
the United States government. Since then, the population of northern elephant
seals has recovered at an average rate of six percent per year. Today, thanks
to government protection and the seals' distant lives at sea, the worldwide
population has grown to an estimated 150,000 seals.
After being absent for more than 150 years, elephant seals
returned to the sandy beaches on the rocky Point Reyes Headlands in the early
1970s. In 1981, the first breeding pair was discovered near Chimney Rock.
Since then, researchers have found that the colony is growing at a dramatic
annual average rate of 16 percent. When severe storms occurred in 1992, 1994,
and 1998, many pups were killed. During the El Niño winter of 1998, storms
and high tides washed away approximately 85% of the 350 young pups before
they had learned to swim. Nevertheless, the Point Reyes elephant seal
population is between 1,500 and 2,000. Fanning out from their initial
secluded spot, the seals have expanded to popular beaches, causing concern
for both their safety and that of their human visitors.
Sensitive resources such as birds and plants are also
affected by elephant seals. The western snowy plover, a Federally threatened
species under the Endangered Species Act, breeds on few California beaches.
Loss of habitat to beachfront development and human recreation has forced
elephant seals and plovers to compete for limited protected space. Also, rare
plants native to coastal dunes are potentially at risk. Elephant seals and
their curious human visitors may physically crush plants that are struggling
to remain alive.
The park's task is to balance the expansion of the elephant
seal colony while providing for the health of other species. To manage this
balance, the park will continue its docent program, which provides visitors
with on-site information and safety messages at the overlooks. To anticipate
where the elephant seals might expand to next, researchers will attempt to
discover why seals prefer to breed on some beaches and not others. This
information will allow the park to make responsible choices about appropriate
beach use by people, pets, and wildlife.
Northern elephant seals are mysterious and unique
creatures. Elephant seals range from Mexico to Alaska and Hawaii in search of
food and spend 80 percent of their life in the open sea. Not only do they
spend most of their life in the ocean, 90 percent of that time is spent
underwater: eating, sleeping, digesting, and traveling. They are built to
survive continuous dives to depths that would squeeze the life out of any
other mammal. The average dive reaches 1,000 to 2,000 feet, lasts close to
half an hour and is followed by only 3-5 minutes at the surface to breathe.
Imagine being able to live in such extremes!
Why do they dive so deep? The oceans are full of food for
millions of animals, but relatively few feed at the depths elephant seals
prefer. As a result, they face little competition for food. Feeding in almost
total darkness, elephant seals use their large eyes and the bioluminescence
of some prey, such as octopus and squid, to find food where other predators
would not even be able to see. They may use their stiff yet sensitive three
to eight inch long whiskers to "feel" some food, such as Pacific
hake, skates, rays, shrimp, small sharks and crabs.
Elephant Seals at main colony at Point Reyes.
What allows such deep diving? Pressure increases as seals
go deeper into the ocean. As they dive, outside pressure compresses the air
in their bodies. Elephant seals differ from humans in that when they dive,
they carry all the oxygen they need in their blood rather than their lungs.
Before diving, elephant seals exhale; collapsing their lungs so there is
little air to be compressed. As they dive, the seals fat is also compressed
so that the animal loses its buoyancy and sinks, allowing it to achieve great
depth with little effort.
Elephant seals prolong their dives by reducing their heart
rate. A seal resting on land has a heart rate of 55-120 beats per minute, but
when it dives, the heart slows to 4-15 beats per minute. The seal maintains
normal blood pressure by decreasing the blood supply to its extremities,
allowing the blood to flow primarily to the vital organs and the brain. This
also helps the seal conserve body heat when down in the cold ocean depths.
During semi-annual migrations, adult males and females are
not only thousands of miles apart, but they have different feeding patterns.
Males return to the same feeding areas off the Aleutian Islands each year,
while females feed in the northeast Pacific and near Hawaii. To complete both
round-trips, females journey over 11,000 miles, males 13,000 miles. Males
dive deeply and repeatedly for food. After about three weeks, they have eaten
so much that their dive pattern changes to a flat-bottom dive, following the
bottom contours as they rest and digest. Females also dive deeply and
repeatedly, but they go deeper during the daytime than at night.
Although their locations and diving patterns differ, both
sexes dive repeatedly for four to five months during summer and fall.
Research suggests that elephant seals forage continuously during their
migrations and, furthermore, they don't sleep! They may take
"cat-naps" when they dive, as their heart rate slows, making only
brief, infrequent surface appearances. This pattern, and the incredible
amount of time spent below the surface, explains why so few of them have been
seen in the open ocean despite their rapidly growing population.
I then looked at the
WWF website, as I thought it would be a good idea if my double page spread was
about 'adopting an elephant seal', and I wanted to see what kind of information
I should be including.
I looked at the Adopt
A Dolphin page, as it is a sea animal and more relevant to an elephant seal
than the other options.
I am going to do it as
an advertisement for WWF to go in a wildlife/nature magazine.
Adopt
An Elephant Seal
There
are two species of elephant seals, the northern and southern. Northern elephant
seals can be found in California and Baja California, whereas Southern elephant
seals live in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters that feature brutally cold
conditions but are rich in the fish, squid, and other marine foods these seals
enjoy.
Type:
Mammal
Diet:
Carnivore
Average
life span in the wild:
9
years (northern); 20 to 22 years (southern)
Size:
Up to
20 ft (6 m)
Weight:
Up to
8,800 lbs (4,000 kg)
Group
name:
Colony
Size
relative to a 6-ft (2-m) man:
Did
you know?
Southern
elephant seals can dive over 4,921 feet (1,500 meters) deep and remain
submerged for up to two hours.
Northern
Seals
Once
each year, northern elephant seals molt. An epidermal molt is a unique
characteristic of elephant seals and monk seals. Once a year the animals come
ashore and shed their fur and the first layer of skin (or epidermis). The skin
and fur come off in sheets as new skin and fur replace old. When the molt is
finished, the animals have silver fur. Between the molting and breeding
seasons, northern elephant seals remain at sea for 6 to 8 months, traveling
thousands of miles and spending 86% of their time submerged. They may travel up
to 21,000 miles in a year, the longest migration known for any mammal.
Southern
Seals
Southern
elephant seals breed on land but spend their winters in the frigid Antarctic
waters near the Antarctic pack ice.
Southern
elephants are the largest of all seals. Males can be over 20 feet (6 meters)
long and weigh up to 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms). But these massive
pinnipeds aren't called elephant seals because of their size. They take their
name from their trunklike inflatable snouts.
Threats
to Seals
Elephant
seals were aggressively hunted for their oil, and their numbers were once
reduced to the brink of extinction. Fortunately, populations have rebounded
under legal protections and with the help of all the people who are adopting
these animals.
How
your adoption can help
£120
(or £10 a month) could pay for organising and running of 1 beach clean for
members of the public or school children – elephant seals can swallow and
become entangled in litter which can cause injury or death
How
you’re helping the seals
· Improving the management of California
and Antarctica’s resources and safeguarding its wildlife
· Establishing a network of marine
protected areas covering at least 10% of the 20 million km2Southern
Ocean
· Reducing illegal and unsustainable
hunting practices
· Raising awareness of the threats of
climate change we all face
· Your support will also help fund other
essential WWF conservation work around the world
Creating
more protected areas in key marine habitats
Contact
WWF
Please call us on 0844
736 0036 (8am - 10pm, 7 days a week) if you'd prefer to take out your adoption
over the phone.
Your elephant seal adoption
pack:
A cuddly toy (optional)
My Elephant Seals and Wild World magazine 3 times
a year
Factbook, certificate, bookmarks, stickers and
more
These are the pictures that I'm using: As the magazine purpose is to encourage adopting one of these animals, I decided to use a picture of a pup as they are a lot cuter than the adult seals which have the huge trunk. - Source
I also used the WWF logo as I decided to advertise it as though it was their brand. - Source
I thought this was amazing photography, with the slow shutter speed on the water. The elephant seal really stands out, and really shows the seal in its own habitat which I think is appealing, rather than in a zoo or on shore. It's a really high quality image. - Source
I thought this was a good image to use, because it shows both male and female, and the male doesn't look battered or bloody, which a lot of them do because they are aggressive and fight a lot. - Source
I am also using an image of here because I am including a factfile on the magazine article. - Source
I then started to make the double page spread, which can be found here.
Leave your comment