Southern Elephant Seals have made their appearance on Cape Town’s beaches recently. The creatures have made a splash and captured the attention of locals and visitors with their rare arrival. Since past few months, many individual elephant seals have been spotted lounging on the coastline. Their unexpected visits have sparked growing public curiosity.
The Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation in association with the City of Cape Town’s wildlife management teams has closely monitored the unique visitors and they are also helping in educating the public on how best to behave when encountering these seals.
Cape Town Is A Home
This city is home for Southern Elephant Seals now. Most of these visiting elephant seals are here to moult, a natural but vulnerable process. Experts stressed upon the importance of giving the seals space, allowing everyone to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime sighting safely and responsibly.
Southern Elephant Seals are the largest seal species in the world. Males can reach lengths of up to seven metres and weigh as much as five tonnes. They are typically found in the Southern Ocean, with breeding and resting colonies on Subantarctic and Antarctic islands.
The closest known colony to Cape Town is on South Africa’s Marion Island, which is about 2,177 km away. These seals spend most of their lives at sea and only come ashore for breeding, moulting or to rest during the winters.
Cape Town Downtime
What is special about this shore that brings these seals here! These elephant seals in Cape Town considered vagrant species, that came here for some time to rest and moult. Moulting is strenuous and is an essential process during which the seals shed their top layer of skin and fur.
While in the icy ocean, their bodies reduce blood circulation near the skin to conserve energy. This limits or put a pause on the growth of new hair and skin cells, so that they must haul out onto land away from the cold water for three to five weeks to regenerate.
The seals remain on land to fully complete the process of moulting by conserving energy and relying on stored fat reserves for sustenance. Seals restores the health and integrity of their skin and fur which is critical for their future survival.
Considering this, Coastal and Environmental Manager for the City of Cape Town – Gregg Oelofse emphasised on the importance of leaving these animals undisturbed and quoted, “They don’t need help, food or water. The best we can do for them is to give them peace and space.”
To this, Marine Wildlife Manager at the Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation – Martine Viljoen added and said, “We love having the opportunity to raise awareness about their presence along our shores and hopefully this encourages more informed and respectful public action.”
This is a very vulnerable time for the seals and disturbing them can lead to stress, energy depletion and even injury. So please enjoy the sight of this beautiful animal that has graced the Cape Town beach for a short while. We can help them by keeping them safe as respecting their space, so keep your distance and avoid interaction. Always keep dogs well away and on a leash. Also stop other people from disturbing or harming them.