Going Wild

Nature Notes are an ongoing look at the beautiful, complex, and sometimes bizarre animal kingdom. Wildlife encounters that inform and astound us. intimate experiences that connect us with nature.

Elephant seals (also sea elephants) are large, oceangoing seals in the genus Mirounga. The two species, the northern elephant seal (M. angustirostris) and the southern elephant seal (M. leonina), both were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered.