Creature Feature

Northern Elephant Seal(Mirounga angustirostris)

• Mammals– Hair– Mammary glands

• Derive their name from the large proboscis on males

• Used to make loud noises during mating competitions

• Males can grow to 14 ft and 5,000 lbs• Females are smaller (11 ft and 1400lbs)

Seven principal breeding areas, four of which are on islands off the coast of California

Breeding!• Returns to its terrestrial breeding

ground in December and January• Males arrive first and fight out

breeding territory– Lots of bloodshed and injury– Few males actually breed

• Females arrive and select a male• Lifetime reproduction potential of a female is about ten pups• Bulls have a harem of females – 30 to 100 cows depending on the size and strength of the bull– In a lifetime a successful bull could easily sire over 500 pups

Conservation• Hunted for their blubber• By the end of the 19th Century population fell to

between 100-1000 individuals• Protected since the early 20th Century• Genetic bottleneck– Susceptible to El Nino and resulting weather conditions

• Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972)– Numbers have recovered to ~100,000 individuals– In CA the population continues to grow ~25% each year

Video!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4YWgnRQJGY

Creature Feature

Weedy Sea Dragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus)

• Marine fish related to the seahorse

• 45 cm in length• Swim in shallow reefs and

weed beds• Resemble drifting weed

when moving over bare sand

• Lack a prehensile tail that enables similar species to clasp and anchor themselves

Found in water 3 to 50 m deep around the southern coastline of Australia

• Male of the species carries the fertilized eggs– Attached under his tail – Incubated for about eight

weeks

• Suck food into the end of their long tube-like snout

• Feed on tiny crustaceans and other zooplankton from crevices in reefs

Conservation

• Listed as Near Threatened by the World Conservation Union

• Pollution and Industrial Runoff• Collected by divers• Washed ashore by storms