Nicole Teutschel at UC Santa Cruz Long Marine Lab, CA-- There's news from the beach! The oldest E Seal to give birth at Año Nuevo State Reserve is is 23 year old G959. G959 was flipper tagged as an adult in 1990. Tagged as an adult means that she was at least 4 years old at the time of tagging. Counting back, G959 is at least 23 years old!

G959 vocalizing to other females. Photo: Lauren Randall. 

Female elephant seals start breeding at 3 to 4 years of age, typically giving birth at 4 or 5. We are able to keep track of how old animals are by the flipper tags that they received as pups or weanlings. Females then continue to give birth to a new pup each year. Until now, the oldest female on record was 21 years of age. 

G959 picked a good spot in the harem: right in the middle where she will experience minimal disturbance from males. G959 is the long female, second up from the bottom of the image. Photo: Lauren Randall

Elephant seals have indeterminant growth, which means they don't stop growing their entire lives! G959 is one BIG female elephant seal. She is very long, likely significantly over three meters. She was massive when she returned to the beach in January, indicating that she must be a very successful forager. Since then the TOPP team has been eagerly waiting to see if she would be the seal to break the record...and she did! G959 was just spotted with a large healthy pup.

G959 Nursing her pup. Photo: Lauren Randall.