Elephant Seal Throwing Sand

The dark pup peering out at the right places this scene in the breeding and nursing season at San Simeon. A northern elephant seal mother eats nothing at all for the roughly 26 or 27 days she nurses, burning through her own body at something like 7.5 kilograms a day to produce milk that runs between 25 and 60 percent fat. Her pup packs on about 2.2 kilograms daily. Then she simply leaves for the open Pacific, and the nursing ends in a single day. The sand flicked across her back is one of the few ways she can cool off while she works.