{"id":416429,"date":"2026-01-19T08:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T08:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/416429\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T08:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T08:29:07","slug":"elephant-seals-return-to-ano-nuevo-state-park-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/416429\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant seals return to A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

PESCADERO, Calif. — Every winter about 10,000 elephant seals<\/a> make their way to California’s A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park to fight, mate and give birth. The spectacle runs from mid-December through March, drawing wildlife watchers eager for a glimpse of the largest seals on the planet.<\/p>\n

During what park docent Laura Stern called \u201cpupping season,\u201d bull seals \u2014 some reaching up to 16 feet (4.9 meters) in length and weighing up to 2.5 tons \u2014 engage in bloody battles for breeding access to the females. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo most elephant seals come back to the same beach where they were born. They don’t all, but most of them do,\u201d Stern said. \u201cAnd we have about 10,000 elephant seals that come to A\u00f1o Nuevo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elephant seals were hunted nearly to extinction in the 1800s, sought out for their blubber, which was used to make oil. In 1892, fewer than 100 of the animals remained on a small island off the coast of Baja California. <\/p>\n

Recognizing the crisis, the Mexican government extended legal protection to the species in 1922, followed shortly by protection in the United States. Today the population has grown to an estimated 250,000 seals living in the Pacific. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a genetic bottleneck because they’re all coming from that same 30 to 60. But so far they’re doing really well, and we haven’t had any problems,\u201d Stern said. <\/p>\n

A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park, about 90 minutes south of San Francisco, is one of the largest mainland breeding rookeries on the West Coast. During pupping season<\/a>, visitors come in droves to book docent-led guided walks so they can watch the long-nosed bull seals clash on the shore, hear the barks and bellows filling the seaside air and see the mothers nurse sleek, 75-pound (34-kilogram) pups on the sand dunes. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awe-inspiring,” said Carrie Kahn, a visitor to the park from Berkeley, California. “And you just wonder, how do they move from point A to point B? They look like they\u2019d be so slow. But they\u2019re quick and big, and they\u2019re honking and making noises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Male elephant seals have the highest level of testosterone of any mammal, Stern said. \u201cSo they want to mate, fight, eat, press repeat,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re not at a museum. You’re not in an aquarium. You are right here watching them live doing what they do,\u201d Stern said. <\/p>\n

Between April and November, no tours are needed to visit the seals at A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park. During pupping season, visitors must reserve a spot on a docent-guided walk to see the seals. Reservations can be made at www.reservecalifornia.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PESCADERO, Calif. — Every winter about 10,000 elephant seals make their way to California’s A\u00f1o Nuevo State Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[199337,1147,966,793,1680,79,152259,795,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-416429","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-199337","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-national-parks","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-seals-and-sea-lions","15":"tag-u-s-news","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}