Male Elephant Seals Intentionally Eat to Gain Weight or Die Trying: New Study

Male elephant seals intentionally enlarge their already-large body size for food hunting, mating, and defense, as per a new study.

Scientists have discovered that the large bodies of male elephant seals are driven to take on riskier lengths just to eat food and grow.

As a result, researchers were able to identify that male elephant seals are always at risk of competition with one another and are more likely to die than female seals.

The new study sheds light on male northern elephant seals and how they die trying while acquiring their reward.

Intentional Weight Gain Amongst Male Elephant Seals

The study's research team published their study in the Royal Society Open Science on Jan. 19.

The study showed that only a fraction of the very largest male elephant seals will get the opportunity to mate with female elephant seals.

The study's unique take on this phenomenon is that male northern elephant seals are driven to eat food and grow their bodies to be used for food gathering and reproduction.

This behavior of male northern elephant seals has also been attributed to self-defense from competitors and prey.

Male elephant seals are larger than their female counterparts.

There are two species of elephant seals, the Northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris) and the Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonine), as per National Geographic.

Northern elephants seals, which can be found in California, USA, and Baja California, Mexico, have a shorter lifespan of approximately nine years compared to more than 20 years lifespan of the Southern Elephant seals living in sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters.

With the current scientific knowledge on the said species, there is relatively little scientific research conducted on male elephant seals as a majority of research targeted just female elephant seals, according to Sara Kienle, an ecophysiologist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, via ScienceNews.

Ongoing Study and Methods

The study's research team is part of a long-term and ongoing project on elephant seals in California, USA.

The team used various satellite and radio equipment to monitor the behavior of more than 200 seals attached with a tracking device.

As a site of their study, the researchers deployed their bio-logging instruments to study northern male elephants seals at the Año Nuevo State Park in San Mateo County between 2006 and 2015.

The researchers conducted their study during the beginning and end of the mating season.

The study discovered females are not required to enlarge their bodies while males are driven to eat food and grow-beyond their initial body size.

The researchers monitored both male and female male elephants at the site, observing females spend their food hunting in the open ocean.

On the other hand, male elephant seals continuously feed on prey in shallower waters and nearshore habitats. The frenzied eating of males allowed for their bodies to increase six times than their original body mass.