Sloats Galore!!

Naturally I had to visit my cousins the Elephant Sloats at Point Piedras Blancas. When I was here five weeks ago, there were just a few sloats on the beach. Now, there are hundreds, maybe over a thousand! If there are not that many yet there may soon be, as the females are giving birth. January is pupping month. If you look closely at the blowup of this picture you can see many pups...they're black in color and have a much higher pitched grunt (or bark) than the adults. Right in the middle of the pic is a bull in posture mode. He's guarding his harem of sheila sloats from wannabe bulls.

Here's a closeup of a sheila sloat with her little nipper. The mama sloats nurse their pups on very rich milk, but life can be perilous for the keikis. The sheilas argue a lot and from what I've heard they will sometimes try to steal each other's pups. The pups can get squashed in such disputes. They can also get squashed big time by the bloke sloats as they lumber around chasing the sheilas. They're literally two ton Tonys...some of the larger bulls weigh that much! In addition, the pups can be washed away by big waves at high tide if such an event occurs before they learn to swim. So it's not always easy being a pup sloat.