Elephant seals have been declared extinct three times, but they keep coming back and the beaches of San Mateo County in California are proof of their return, according to San Jose Mercury News.
Elephant seals come to the beaches to mate, but in a few months, they will return to the sea. Biologists used to think the elephant seals didn't wander far from the shore, but the pinnipeds actually travel farther than scientists thought.
"We're trying to figure out what these animals are doing at sea," Patrick Robinson, reserve director for the Año Nuevo UC Santa Cruz Natural Reserve, told Mercury News.
When elephant seals land on the shores of California, they are weighed by researchers and tissue samples are collected to determine health and diet. With the help of Japan and the U.S. Office of Naval Research, elephant seals have been tagged and their movements have been tracked. Even cameras have been used to identify what the seals are eating, according to Mercury News.
Female elephant seals tend to go farther than the males. "We even had two of them crossing the International Date Line last year, and we're not sure why," Robinson said, according to Mercury News. "At that point, they were closer to Russia than the U.S."
Winter breeding season is an annual chance for scientists to study the elephant seals. "Their home is really the ocean," Terry Kiser, supervising ranger at Año Nuevo State Park, told Mercury News. "They spend 90 percent of their lives in the ocean."
