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Southern Elephant Seals breed in the Sub-Antarctic, and range widely over the Southern Ocean. Within this region there are eight or more important breeding colonies, the largest of which are at Macquarie, Kerguelen, and at South Georgia. The global population is approximately 740,000 seals, of which some 400,000 belong to the South Georgia colony.
Seal pups are born on land, and remain with their mothers suckling for around three weeks. After this period they are left by their mothers, and the pups remain at the colony for a further four to eight more weeks before they go to sea. They must go sea, as, apart from when they suckle as pups, elephant seals only feed in the ocean.
The sea-going phases of the elephant seal’s life are periods about which we have, until recently, known comparatively little.
And yet they spend the greater part of their lives in the ocean, and it is there that they display what are perhaps their
most amazing capabilities and adaptations. In the course of these extended cruises, elephant seals spend as much as 90% of the time underwater,
their brief visits to the surface lasting only for the few minutes required to breathe.
They may dive to 2000m or more, often remaining submerged for over an hour at a stretch. Elephant seals can only
sustain this kind of extreme physical activity because of a collection of remarkable adaptations,
particularly relating to oxygen management and blood flow.
In their search for food individuals will typically make ocean journeys of up to 4000km.