Southern Elephant Seal

• It is the largest pinniped in the world, with bulls of up to 4 tonnes.
• A single dominant bull can monopolise mating with hundreds of females on one beach.
• It feeds on dives that can exceed 1,000-2,000 metres.
• fisiologíaIt can dive to over 1,500 metres and stay under for as long as two hours, thanks to an extremely high concentration of myoglobin in its muscles.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (marine mammal)

Habitat & environment

Subantarctic islands and coasts of the Southern Hemisphere; it feeds in the deep waters of the Southern, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans

Birth weight

40-50 kg; 1.3 m long

Size at birth

1.3 m long at birth, in a woolly black coat that it moults at 3 weeks

Sexual maturity

Female: 2-6 years | Male: 4-8 years (though it does not usually breed until it wins social dominance at around 9-12)

Gestation / incubation

~11 months (including 3-4 months of delayed implantation)

Litter / clutch size

1 young per birth

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of 23.7 years in captivity

Sources consulted: MarineBio; SANBI Species Status; AnAge (genomics.senescence.info); Animal Diversity Web; Australian Government Species Profile; Secret Atlas; Cool Antarctica; ASOC; PMC (genome assembly study, age-dependent survival study); IUCN, comunicado de 9 de abril de 2026: pasa a estar en riesgo de extinción por enfermedad, en la misma actualización que el pingüino emperador