NPGallery Search Results

Your search on Keywords contains 'elephant seals' returned 281 results, Showing page 1 of 5, Items 1 through 60

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A tight-knit group of a couple dozen weaned elephant seals. They are cute, with their big, dark eyes and round faces. Some are showing off rolls of fat around their necks as they look over their shoulders towards the camera.

Weanlings

Large male snoozing near the edge of a small beach near an adult female. A faded 'F1' is visible on his rump if you look carefully. A bit of wood and pipe infrastructure is visible in the photographer's corner of the frame.

Fish Dock alpha male

Two elephant seals lyiing in the sand side by side in the same position, both glancing toward the camera without raising their heads. The pup is on the left, smaller, darker, and fatter than its silvery-coated mother.

Family time

Head-on look at a very round young seal in shallow flowing water.

Swim practice?

Dozens of plump young elephant seals in a row, showing off their fat rolls as many look over their shoulders towards the camera.

Weanling pod

A large male elephant seal covered in scratches and scars watches a tight circle of over a dozen weanlings alongside the photographer. A circilar chart is overlaid in the lower left. It shows the months of the year on the outside, and concentric circles within are partially filled to show when different elephant seal demographics visit Point Reyes beaches. It shows that while the breeding season is over for adult females, adult males may stick around through the end of the month, and weaned pups will be around through April. Adult females and juveniles are back April-June to molt, followed by adult males over the summer months. Juveniles visit to haul out throughout the fall, and then adult males start arriving in late November, kicking off the start of the next breeding season.

Annual cycle

Loose group of three female seals with nearly-weaned pups on the dry sand beneath a steep bluff.

Last harem of the season

A weaned elephant seal resting its head and tail on a log, helping to draw attention to a new, pink flipper tag with the ID Z447 visible, albeit upside down.

Flipper tagged

Sandy cove in the foreground at the base of a tall bluff with dozens of elephant seals along the very back of the beach. Drakes Bay extends out into the distance backed by a stretch of more iconic bluffs.

Late season in Gus' Cove

Two elephant seal weaned pups, among a congregation of a dozen or so others, sport newly applied flipper tags as they look back over their shoulders at the camera.

Tagged weanlings

A dense gathering of about a dozen young elephant seals. Some are looking towards one that is vocalizing towards the sky. One in the front appears to be hugging its neighbor with both front flippers.

Weanling pod

Large bull elephant seal dangles his large proboscis over the back of a female and embraces her with one of his front flippers.

Mating attempt

A small elephant seal pup on a sandy beach next to its snoozing mother and a snoozing bull.

Last pup of the season

Sandy cove in the foreground at the base of a tall bluff with dozens of elephant seals along the very back of the beach. Drakes Bay extends out into the distance backed by a stretch of more iconic bluffs.

Late season in Gus' Cove

Plump young elephant seals with fresh, smooth new coats rest on the sand.

Molted weanlings

Two bull elephant seals chest to chest in the surf, trying to bite each other.

Water fight

Bull elephant seal embraces a much smaller female seal on a rocky beach as other females snooze beside them.

Mating attempt

Large bull elephant seal with a big, dangling proboscis chases another large male down a rocky beach, towards the water. Drakes Bay backed by steep bluffs make for a scenic backdrop.

Defending territory

Six photos depicting the rescue of a pup in distress. In the first, a female seal lingers in the shallow surf, calling in the direction of her pup. Second, a huge male charges down the beach. Third, the male is positioned behind the small pup, nudging it towards shore. Fourth, the male blocks the pup ahead of it from a large wave. Fifth, the female, with her pup back at her side, vocalizes. Finally, the male, now nearly out of the waves, raises his head and vocalizes in response.

Pup rescue sequence

A couple dozen elephant seals with large patches of old fur peeling off different parts of their bodies, all asleep on the beach on a calm, sunny day.

Catastrophic molting

Group of 8 plump young elephant seals on a pile of smooth rocks where a stream flows across the Beach.

Lounging on the rocks

Two elephant seal weanlings, one with a molted coat and one in the process of molting.

Pair of weanlings

A lhalf-dozen male elephant seals, some larger than others, resting on the same stretch of beach beneath towering bluffs.

Waiting to try their luck

Dozens of seals, including a large male and lots of females and pups, resting on a rocky beach beneath a steep bluff.

Overlook colony

Plump young elephant seal with big dark eyes lounging on multiple pieces of driftwood. It has a pink tag on its tail and a white substance dripping from its nostrils.

Not a runny nose

Very large pup nursing from a larger but less plump female seal.

Big and nursing

A very rotund elephant seal pup looking up over the tail flipper of another seal.

A fat pup

Two plump young elephant seals in a large tidepool.

Swim practice

Chubby elephant seal looks over its back towards the camera. On its tail flipper is a small pink tag.

Flipper-tagged weanling

Large elephant seal with a big proboscis rears his head back, vocalizing as two females also vocalize and all the other seals on the beach appear to be snoozing.

Alpha male

Large seal touching noses with a much smaller seal on a beach.

Nose to nose

Tight shot of a mother elephant seal cheek-to-cheek with her pup. The mother has dark stains beneath her big, dark eyes.

Cow and pup close-up

Seal sleeping on a sandy beach, covered in sand.

N824 on Drakes Beach

Looking out across a wide beach covered in elephant seals. There are mostly large females, with a few small pups in the mix, and a large male in the back.

Elephant seal harem

Cliff-top view of a sandy beach in a cove backed by cliffs. There are a few dozen seals mostly towards the center of the beach, where it's widest.

Dead Seal Beach elephant seals

Very round elephant seal pup with black fur and big black eyes on the sand right in front of the hind end of a much larger, sand-colored adult seal.

Large elephant seal pup

Large female elephant seal emerging from the surf with an even larger male just behind her. The bluffs of Drakes Bay are visible in the distance.

Elephant seal cow arriving

Chunky young elephant seal with big, dark eyes and dark fur among larger, sand-colored female elephant seals.

Rotund weanling

Eye-level view of a cluster of female elephant seals, a few with small pups, and one large bull elephant seal on the far left. Drakes Bay and more Point Reyes hills and bluffs are in the background.

Ken Patrick Visitor Center harem

View across steep bluffs of a cluster of elephant seals high up on a small, cliff-backed beach.

Chimney Rock elephant seals

Female elephant seals, many with small pups, scattered on the sand in a small, cliff-backed cove.

Elephant seal harem

A harem of a couple doden elephant seals on the cliff-backed Drakes Beach.

Further down Drakes Beach

A couple dozen female elephant seals resting on a cliff-backed beach consisting of sand and smoothed stones.

Elephant Seal Overlook harem

Elephant seal pup snoozing on its side behind its alert mother glancing toward the camera without raising her head.

Cow and pup

Elephant seal pup facing the camera, with its mom stretched out on her side just behind it watching from the corner of her eye.

Cow and pup

A elephant seal bull snoozing behind a pregnant elephant seal cow flipping sand onto her back on the beach.

Bull and cow

Seal lying on its belly on a rocky section of beach. It has a small pink tag on its tail.

Año Nuevo yearling

Side view of a large bull elephant seal resting on the sand as sun illuminates the Drakes Bay bluffs in the background.

Dye-marked bull

Back side of a large bull elephant seal with two

Dye-marked bull

An elephant seal cow resting on the beach with its eyes open, with other seals and the base of crumbly bluffs visible behind her.

Adult female

Elephant seals and harbor seals hauled out on a pocket beach backed by steep cliffs. Two subadult male elephant seals are fighting.

Main Colony

A female elephant seal lays on her side with her small pup on Drakes Beach, with Drakes Bay and iconic Point Reyes bluffs in the distance..

Cow and Pup

A skinny, newly born elephant seal pup in the sand, which is streaked with red.

First pup

A tight-knit group of a couple dozen weaned elephant seals. They are cute, with their big, dark eyes and round faces. Some are showing off rolls of fat around their necks as they look over their shoulders towards the camera.

Album - 60 Items
Elephant Seal Photos, Winter 2024-2025

Head-on view of a large elephant seal snoozing on the beach. His old, scratched-up, tan-colored fur is starting to fall off in a few places--most visibly around his eyes, proboscis, and left shoulder--revealing a fresh gray coat below.

Molting elephant seal

A close-up of a gray elephant seal sleeping on the beach with rough patches of pink skin around its neck.

Sleeping male close up

A landscape view of a coastal cove; many elephant seals lay on the sandy beach below the cliff. Dark blue and aqua water extends to the right.

Gus' Cove

Two plump weanlings with mottled brown-black fur lay on the beach. One looks up over its back at the camera.

Two weanlings

A weanling lays beside a fence and an electric car charging station.

Weanling

Two women kneel on the group besides a plump seal, and are tagging the seal's hind flipper using a green device.

Tagging weanling

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