Nicole Teutschel at Año Nuevo State Reserve, CA-- Today we were busy at North Point, one of the north most harems at Año Nuevo State Reserve in Northern California. In addition to recovering a satellite tag, we were also resighting.

Resighting is when we hike the beaches with our binoculars in hand, searching for flipper tagged, satellite tagged, and hair dye-marked seals. This data is used to keep track of both individual seals, and populations over time. All this data is kept back at the lab in a huge 30 year data set! The data set includes which harem the seal was seen in, if she had a pup, what her dye marks look like (as you can imagine...they don't always come out perfect), and more. Over the years we can follow seals' haul out patterns, population changes, and answer all kinds of interesting e seal demographical questions.

The TOPP Team resighting from a dune. Photo: Nicole Teutschel

Just as we were getting ready to hike back to the truck, we realized that we hadn't seen Stelephant Colbert. Stelephant is an adult male elephant seal satellite tagged by TOPP last August. Stelephant isn't an alpha, which is what we call the dominant male in the harem. The TOPP team usually finds him between the ocean and a harem, which isn't a shabby location! Only 1 in 10 males gets to be alpha in his lifetime, and while Stelephant isn't running a harem, he still controls a piece of beach that females have to cross when returning to sea.

After a closer look at the surf, we found him. Check out these images snapped of Stelephant! And be sure to stay tuned to learn more about Stelephant and the other satellite tagged E Seals here as a part of Elephant Seal Homecoming Days.

Stelephant Colbert, mating with a female who is heading back out to sea after fasting for over a month! Photo: Erin Pickett

 Stelephant Colbert showing off his nose so that other males don't approach. Male elephant seals use their large nose, or proboscis to intimidate eachother.  Photo: Erin Pickett