Jane Stevens in Santa Cruz, CA -- The first pups of the elephant seal birthing season opened their eyes to their new world of Año Nuevo State Reserve north of Santa Cruz this last week! Nicole Teutschel, a UC Santa Cruz student and long-time member of the elephant seal research team, took these photos of a newborn last Friday and two days later, on Sunday at Año Nuevo State Reserve. In the first photos, the pup looks wrinkled and a little pitiful. Wrinkles on an elephant seal pup are a good thing. It needs all that extra skin, because it puts on five to 10 pounds a day! This little pup probably weighed 75 pounds when it was born.

In just two days, the pup's wrinkles start to fill out. By the end of the 25 to 28 days of drinking in its mom's super high-fat milk -- 55 percent -- it will weigh in at 250 to 350 pounds. It's gaining five to 10 pounds a day! Some enterprising pups nurse off of two or three females. At the end of a month, these "super-weaners" can weigh 600 pounds.

This cute seal will be joined by a couple of thousand others, most of them in January. We'll be out on the beach, removing tags from the returning females and documenting the newborns. Join us for Elephant Seal Homecoming Days, starting January 2.