baby Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina)

Chlidonias · 26 Sep 2015

Caroline Bay, Timaru, 26 September 2015

A female Elephant Seal came ashore at Caroline Bay a week or so ago, and gave birth on Thursday (today is Saturday, so the pup is only three days old). Elephant Seal births on the mainland are very very rare, so this was a must-see event for me. The only other Elephant Seal I have seen was a young male at Kaikoura in June this year.

Unfortunately I cannot rate the chances of survival to weaning very high for this pup. The beach is literally right next to town and the pup has become a local celebrity of sorts. I was there for about four hours today and there were literally hundreds of people coming and going, a fair number of whom brought their dogs with them. There were also several dogs running unleashed on the beach.

I hope to be proven wrong, and see the pup survive to leave the beach.

zooboy28 · 30 Sep 2015

Awesome photo Chlidonias, must have been awesome to see them.

I read in the article linked below that the seasonal ban on dogs on the beach comes into force tomorrow (1 Oct), so that should help. Hopefully the pup survives.

Story here: Mother elephant seal and pup move up Caroline Bay | Stuff.co.nz

Chlidonias · 30 Sep 2015

it was great seeing them, but also really aggravating with the attitude of some people there - a couple of whom I had some words with.

It is good to see the barrier being extended to keep people back more. The dogs on leashes aren't a major problem, other than some people were getting too close with them; it is the dogs running loose which could kill the pup, and loose dogs won't be affected by the beach ban because they are there on their own.

zooboy28 · 9 Oct 2015

Sadly the pup has died, although the cause is unknown.

Story here: Baby elephant seal dies at Timaru's Caroline Bay | Stuff.co.nz

The elephant seal pup born on Timaru's Caroline Bay beach has died.

The pup turned three weeks old on Thursday. Department of Conservation conservation services manager Dave Winterburn said the time and cause of the seal's death were unknown.

A DOC ranger at the scene suspected the seal might have died on Thursday night. It was believed to be underweight.

One ranger had gone to fetch a tarpaulin while the other rnager kept watch over the pair and reassured people who had gathered on the beach. The rangers intend to remove the pup's corpse tonight if the mother elephant seal allows them.

The pup and its mother drew crowds to Timaru's Caroline Bay for days.

Visitors' behaviour around the pair prompted several locals to warn them about getting too close to the animals.

Chlidonias · 9 Oct 2015

I saw that a few minutes ago and was going to post. Really sad. That the pup seemed underweight suggests to me that that harrassment was stressing it too much to feed enough.

I put blame equally on those ignorant minority amongst the visitors and on the local DoC people who did nothing to protect the animals.

TeaLovingDave · 9 Oct 2015

A great pity, but as you noted weeks ago it was sadly very likely to happen

baby Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina)

Chlidonias

zooboy28

Chlidonias

zooboy28

Chlidonias

TeaLovingDave

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