Elephant Seals near Hearst Castle! San Simeon. Is it decent ?

Hi, it's Pat Patterson with the Best of California and I'm here with the Elephant Seals and volunteer docent Phil Adams. And Phil, you've been around these guys. This is the weirdest group of animals I've ever seen in my life. Yeah, they have a very, very interesting life cycle. When they are at sea, which is 8 to 10 months of the year, they dive all the time. Even when they're migrating, they don't swim along the surface. They dive and surface and they sleep underwater because they never come ashore. They sleep underwater? They stay underwater for two hours and go as deep as almost 6,000 feet. Wow. So you'd think they'd have to have a huge lung capacity to be able to do that. In fact, they don't. Their lungs are no larger than a land mammal and the very interesting thing is they exhale before they dive. Wow. So they don't have to defeat that big air sack. They're sort of negatively or neutrally buoyant. A couple of swipes with their rear flippers and they can glide. So what are we watching them do now? Right now, this is the end of the mating or birthing season. Almost all the pups have been born and all the pups that are up against the bluff there are weaned pups. They have, the female has already mated. So this is a giant playground. The males are, there only are some big males and they will try to mate with all the females but the females have arrived over about a four to six week period. So that means he doesn't have to mate with all of them in one day. He's got four to six weeks. That's a tall order. All the female or all the males that you see along the beach closer to the water, they are sneakers. So they try to sneak in and mate with some of those females. Yeah, and they are trying to mate with the females and they don't even wait until they're in heat. They just want to mate with them. And so they'll try to sneak in and the females have a very distinct call they make when any male comes around them. So if the alpha male knows he's not making him make that sound, he rears up, looks over at that sneaker and don't make me come over there or I'll beat the heck out of you. That's when people were going down on the beach with them. And Noah, who was filming them at the time, thought we have to come up with a volunteer group that will talk to the people and keep them from going down there. And that's how Friends of the Elvin Seal started. I can almost guarantee you that this part of the rookery would not exist if we hadn't. Because so many people going down on the beach with them, they would have just said, we're out of here. We don't need this anymore. Well, great. Well, great, Phil. I really appreciate the information. I'm here with Phil and Adams. Hi, it's Pat Patterson with the Best California and I'm here at the Elephant Seal Vista Point with Kay Reed, who's from Nipomo. And this is San Simeon. And Kay, do you come here a lot? Not often enough. This is incredible. Isn't it wonderful? Now, you grew up here in the area. Around Solvang. Okay. So, I mean, in terms of the wildlife in this area, is this the weirdest thing you've ever seen? It's pretty crazy. It's so huge. And the mating ritual that's going on? Yeah, and the pups. Should that be allowed to be seen in public? Well, I don't know. I guess it's legal here. Only in California. You guys have a liberal situation here. Okay. Hi, it's Pat Patterson with the Best of California and I'm here with Eric and Chris from Los Angeles. What do you think about the elephant seals? We just saw a real sex on just right there. Sex on the beach. Sex on the beach. And it was wonderful. I had never seen that before. It's hard to get used to that. Well, it's hard to get used to the size of the male organ because I had never seen it before and it was right there. We hope the police will stay away. Thank you for clarifying. It was wonderful. That's great. So, did you guys drive up today? Yes. And is this a place that you come often? About once a year. Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. What part of Los Angeles? Palos Verdes. So, in terms of watching coastal preservation, is this important to you guys? Absolutely. Very important. Yes. Seeing babies and we saw, you know, babies being delivered. That was the year before. You know, this is wonderful to be right there, be able to see nature right there. It's amazing. So, what's next, Eric? We're going up to Big Sur. Oh, so this is a whole weekend deal. A whole week. A whole week. Oh, lucky you. Yeah, now we're going up to Esalen to get naked in the hot tub with hippies. And to maybe, well, mimic this? I'm not saying. That's great. Well, Chris and Eric, I really appreciate it. Hi, it's Pat Patterson with the Best of California and I'm here with Paul and Joyce and they are from Lompoc. Am I saying that right, Lompoc? Yeah, Lompoc. There you go. Yeah. And we're here with the Elephant Seals. Yes. And say hi. Hi. What's your name? I'm Baden. Okay, great. And who's here? What's your name? Kepler. Kepler, okay. And are they enjoying the Elephant Seals? Yes, we are enjoying the Elephant Seals. Have you come up here often? Is this the first time? This is our first time. Wow. How did you find out about it? Oh, through our neighbor in Lompoc. They said how wonderful it is here to see the seals, so we came to see them. You have, I know, flowers. Yes. You have Vandenberg Air Force Base. What's your favorite part about Lompoc? Other than a sign that squirms around. I guess the chaparral, the Burnt Mesa Preserve. That's pretty neat. The Burnt Mesa Preserve. Oh, well, we'll go cover that. That's great to know about, the Burnt Mesa. And how long have you been there? In Lompoc? Just seven months. Wow. So just new residents. And where are you from originally? Ohio. Right before here, we were in Ohio. But we're Californians. So you're coming home. Yeah, coming home. He's from Southern, and I'm from Northern. Well, Lompoc, you meet in the middle. We didn't know there was a Central Coast until we moved here. That's so funny. Well, it's Pat Bennis. I'm here with Paul and Joyce and their children from Lompoc enjoying the elephant seals. And what do you think, what do you think about these elephant seals? Good. Good. That's what we got to say. They're good. Talk to you soon.