Last updated: February 10, 2026
Article
Weekly Elephant Seal Monitoring Update: February 10, 2026
News This Week
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There is an elephant seal mother and pup at the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station! The pup appears to be two weeks old. Biologists presume the pair were brought over with the king tides.
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The peak of the elephant seal breeding season has passed. Total seal numbers are dropping as more cows wean their pup and leave.
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
NPS / Sarah Codde - NMFS Permit No. 27424
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
Milk thieves!
During their 8-12 week post-weaning fast, weaned pups are left alone on Point Reyes beaches. They learn how to swim and continue their physical development in preparation for their first foraging journey out to sea. They also lose weight.
In a study at Año Nuevo State Park, CA, researchers estimated that weaned pups lose approximately 1.3 to 2 pounds per day. By the time they leave the beach, they’ll lose about 25 percent of their body weight.
On average, pups are about 300 pounds when they are first weaned. But some weaned pups will steal additional milk and grow even larger. A few grow to be super weaners nearing 600 pounds! In another study of weaned pups at Año Nuevo, researchers found that super weaners tend to be male. Males pups were more successful at stealing milk. They’d steal more often, more persistently, and for longer than females. Several observations were made of a male attempting to steal milk from as many as 5-10 females in succession! Although this strategy almost always involved a bite from one or more females, some male weaners pursued milk-stealing daily for as long as 3.5 weeks. It was rare for a female weaner to steal milk for more than a single day.
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
Flipper tag updates
Some experienced seal moms are here! We observed one 15-year-old, three 13-year-olds, two 12-year-olds, and two 11-year-olds last week. Above is a 13-year-old cow at the Elephant Seal Overlook. Older females wean larger pups on average, due to their ability to select an optimal location on the beach for nursing. They also produce milk with a high fat content earlier in the lactation period.
A tagged female ‘V73’ was observed with a pup at KPVC this week. She was one of the numerous cows that arrived at KPVC in 2019 (the first year we had a large group of females pupping at KPVC). She was flipper tagged as a cow in 2019, so her age is unknown. She pupped further down on Drakes Beach in 2020 and 2022. In 2024, she returned to pup at KPVC. Hope to see you next year!
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
NPS / PRNSA / Aiko Goldston - NMFS Permit No. 27424
Preliminary Data
Total Elephant Seal Counts, Winter 2025-2026
Female Elephant Seal Counts, Winter 2025-2026
Elephant Seal Pup Counts, Winter 2025-2026
Weaned Elephant Seal Pup Counts, Winter 2025-2026
Weekly Updates Recap
News this week
- Due to storms, biologists did not observe the first pup of the season for the Seashore overall. The first pup at the Ken Patrick Visitor Center (KPVC) was spotted on 12/28/25.
- Early January storms and king tides pushed many elephant seals to the beach in front of KPVC and Gus’ Cove at Chimney Rock.
- This week, a yearling with a fresh shark bite on it’s face showed up at KPVC. Biologists have observed several other seals in the Seashore with fresh shark bites.
What seal am I seeing?
Male elephant seals are distinctive with their proboscis. However, without a proboscis, it can be difficult to distinguish between the female and younger seals. Here is a description:
- Cows arriving between December and February are pregnant. Look for a slender snout and rotund midsection. Pregnant cows associate with Bulls and other pregnant cows. Pelt colors vary from pale to dark.
- Yearlings are the smallest seal aside from pups and weanlings. They often have patchy, pale, tan pelts. They are often seen on the periphery of a harem. They are on the beaches in small numbers during this time.
- Immature seals (both male and female) are longer in length than a yearling and can look like a cow, without the roundness of pregnancy. There aren’t many on the beaches during the breeding season. They are often seen on the periphery or by themselves.
Dye marking
Biologists are applying dye marks to alpha male elephant seals in the Seashore. Black hair dye is used for the dye and comes off with the pelt when the elephant seals molt later in the year. Dye marking helps to keep track of the alpha males' movements throughout the season. While some may stay with one harem for most of the season, others move to different harems. Look out for these dye marked bulls!| Site | Prefix | Dye marked seals |
|---|---|---|
| Ken Patrick Visitor Center | V | V1, V2, V3, V4, V5 |
| Drakes Beach | D | D1, D2, D3, D4 |
| Elephant Seal Overlook | D | D5, D6 |
| Fish Dock | F | None yet. |
News This Week
- Elephant seals continue to arrive at Drakes Beach in front of the Ken Patrick Visitor Center! As of 1/16, there are 51 cows and 32 pups. Look out for the dye-marked bulls: V4, V5, and V6.
- Biologists have observed a higher number of seals with shark bite wounds this season.
- Elephant seal counts continue to increase across all sites. As of 1/15, we counted 1,288 total seals. We expect the peak count of the season to occur around the last week of January.
Elephant seal abundance in 2023
The National Marine Fisheries Service conducted aerial photographic surveys of northern elephant seals throughout California in 2023. They collected imagery in January, during the peak of the elephant seal birthing season. They've done similar surveys since 1990 to monitor abundance, distribution, and trends. With correction factors applied (e.g., to account for not all females arriving and giving birth at the same time), they estimated:
- Adult females: 45,536
- Births: 44,397
- Total 2023 northern elephant seal population: 194,903
The previous total population estimate in 2013 was 187,387 individuals. In 10 years, the population increased four percent, with an average annual growth rate of 0.39 percent.
81% of seals counted were observed on the Channel Islands!
Flipper tags
Small plastic tags are applied to the interdigital webbing of the rear flippers of weaned elephant seal pups. Each tag has a unique alphanumeric code and a color specific to each site. These flipper tags allow biologists at different sites to keep track of the elephant seals’ movement and gain more insight on pup mortality, life expectancy, site fidelity, and reproductive success.
Tag colors are site specific:
- Pink – Point Reyes and Farallon Islands
- Green – Año Nuevo
- White – San Simeon/ Piedras Blancas
- Blue – King Range in the Lost Coast area, Vandenberg Space Force Base, and Mexico
Here are some recent tags observed in the Seashore.
News this Week
- The pups are weaning! The first pup at the Ken Patrick Visitor Center weaned this week. Mating behavior is ramping up as more pups wean and cows enter estrus.
- The yearling with a shark bite on it’s face left the beach in front of the visitor center on Sunday and headed out to the sea.
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Elephant seal numbers increase day by day. Around 300 more pups were born in the Seashore since the last weekly update.
Attempted predation on weanlings
Members of our monitoring team published an observation about attempted predation on elephant seal weanlings at South Beach in Aquatic Mammals last year.
In 2020, while conducting breeding season surveys, biologists noticed at least 34 weanlings with hind flipper injuries. The injuries ranged from small segments to nearly half of the hind flipper. The elephant seals were alive and healthy when this happened. We placed wildlife cameras at the colony and photos captured footage of a coyote repeatedly biting the hind flippers of a weanling. Prior to this, there were just two documented reports of coyotes preying on abandoned or weakened pups in the Seashore. This is the first observed incident of attempted predation by coyotes on apparently healthy elephant seals. We don't know how the flipper injuries affected the seals’ fitness.
We haven't seen similar injuries to healthy elephant seal weanlings in subsequent years.
See the article below for more photos. There's also a video.
Ballinger, K. A., Cox, M. A., Horowski, D. N., & Codde, S. A. (2025). Attempted predation on northern elephant Seal weanlings (Mirounga angustirostris) by coyote (Canis latrans) in Point Reyes National Seashore, California. Aquatic Mammals, 51(4), 363-370.
News This Week
-
There is an elephant seal mother and pup at the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station! The pup appears to be two weeks old. Biologists presume the pair were brought over with the king tides.
-
The peak of the elephant seal breeding season has passed. Total seal numbers are dropping as more cows wean their pup and leave.
Milk thieves!
During their 8-12 week post-weaning fast, weaned pups are left alone on Point Reyes beaches. They learn how to swim and continue their physical development in preparation for their first foraging journey out to sea. They also lose weight.
In a study at Año Nuevo State Park, CA, researchers estimated that weaned pups lose approximately 1.3 to 2 pounds per day. By the time they leave the beach, they’ll lose about 25 percent of their body weight.
On average, pups are about 300 pounds when they are first weaned. But some weaned pups will steal additional milk and grow even larger. A few grow to be super weaners nearing 600 pounds! In another study of weaned pups at Año Nuevo, researchers found that super weaners tend to be male. Males pups were more successful at stealing milk. They’d steal more often, more persistently, and for longer than females. Several observations were made of a male attempting to steal milk from as many as 5-10 females in succession! Although this strategy almost always involved a bite from one or more females, some male weaners pursued milk-stealing daily for as long as 3.5 weeks. It was rare for a female weaner to steal milk for more than a single day.
Flipper tag updates
Some experienced seal moms are here! We observed one 15-year-old, three 13-year-olds, two 12-year-olds, and two 11-year-olds last week. Above is a 13-year-old cow at the Elephant Seal Overlook. Older females wean larger pups on average, due to their ability to select an optimal location on the beach for nursing. They also produce milk with a high fat content earlier in the lactation period.
A tagged female ‘V73’ was observed with a pup at KPVC this week. She was one of the numerous cows that arrived at KPVC in 2019 (the first year we had a large group of females pupping at KPVC). She was flipper tagged as a cow in 2019, so her age is unknown. She pupped further down on Drakes Beach in 2020 and 2022. In 2024, she returned to pup at KPVC. Hope to see you next year!
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