Baby Elephant seals

This weekend our friend Roya and her two children Chase and Brooke came to visit. On Saturday morning we went to see the elephant seals. We hadn't been for a week and there were at least four times as many babies. The male activity is increasing also. The babies only nurse for four weeks and then the moms mate again. We remembered the camera this time!!!

                                  It is amazing to observe how the moms relate to their babies.

                 Watching the gulls eat the afterbirth is the closest we have come to seeing a birth.
                              We missed this one by about an hour.

                                         The males vie for the right to mate with the ladies.