Wonderful ＂king of fins and feet＂： the strong can monopolize the harem beauty of 3 thousand, and the weak are single until death!

South Georgia i.Located in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the environment is unique, isolated, steep and steep, with endless alpine snow peaks, spectacular glaciers and rough and primitive canyon waterfalls, and it is famous for its wild animals’ paradise. However, since it was first discovered in 1675, in less than 100 years, the elephant seals and fur seals on the island have been hunted to death and have since become "bloody".Whaling station. Whaling paradise in the South Atlantic. With the disappearance of the bloody massacre on the island, the number of wild animals on the island has rebounded, and now hundreds of thousands of southern elephant seals gather here every spring to complete their mission.

Because of their huge size and rich fat, elephant seals are hunted in large numbers to extract oil. According to statistics, London alone has been used for one year.20,000 tonsLike seal oil. At the end of the 19th century, many scientists thought that this giant elephant seal (the northern elephant seal) was extinct. Fortunately, in 1910, a small group of lucky people were discovered. The current population is the survivors of that year. Descendants

South Georgia, big guy, the world’s largest pteropod!

Elephant seal (scientific name: Miroungaleonina, English name: seaelephant) belongs to Pinpoda, Marine family, Monk seal subfamily, Elephant seal genus. According to the different distribution areas, elephant seals are divided intoSouth China Sea Elephant () and northern elephant seals. South Elephant Seal and South Elephant Seal mainly inhabit South Georgia Island, Kerguelen Islands, macquarie island and surrounding areas. Due to different geographical locations, it is divided into South Atlantic subgroup, Indian Ocean subgroup and sub-Antarctic Pacific subgroup. The distribution of northern elephant seals is limited to the west coast of North America, the United States and the western coastal areas of Mexico.

Among them, the southern elephant seal is the largest pteropod and the largest land carnivore.CarnivoraMedium. It looks like a "meat mountain" from a distance. At the same time, the southern elephant seal also created the biggest weight difference between male and female mammals. The average weight of males is about 2.2-4 tons.The average body length is 4.5-5.8m.. The heaviest elephant seal recorded in Guinness World Records weighs 5 tons and its body length can reach 6.85 meters. The female weighs only400-800 kg, with a body length of no more than 3 meters.. Compared with northern elephant seals, their gender is similar, but not so extreme. The average weight of male northern elephant seals is about 2 tons, and that of females is about 700-800 kilograms. To tell the truth, seeing the male southern elephant seal pressing on the female southern elephant seal really worried the latter …

Tips: Because the English name of the elephant seal "seaelephant" is translated into "walrus", many careless students directly translate it into walrus (the English name of Walrus is’ Walrus’). Although walrus and elephant seal are both "sea", they belong to different species families. Adult walrus females and males have two long "tusks".

Because of its huge size, there are no polar bears on land.South elephant seals basically "walk sideways" on the Antarctic continent. Killer whales only threaten them when they are in the sea.. Although southern elephant seals often lie prone on the beach to rest, like a meat mountain, they are bloated and have great difficulty in moving (the speed is about 5-10 km/h), but as soon as they enter the water, their limbs are fin-shaped. According to scientific observation, southern elephant seals can dive to a depth of 400 to 1,000 meters (1,300 to 3,300 feet) at a time, and each dive lasts for 20-40 minutes. The deepest recording depth is2388 meters, refreshing the depth of mammals entering the sea.

With epic diving skills, what will the southern elephant seal do? Squid fishing. Because there is no echolocation, southern elephant seals usually use their keen eyesight and whiskers to perceive the situation in nearby waters and eat some fish, krill and crustaceans. However, after dissecting the dead specimens, scientists found that the favorite food of the southern elephant seal was squid.

Three thousand harem beauties? The number of the strongest harem beauties has reached 270!

South elephant seal pursues "polygamy"Is a typical mammal. Every year during the breeding season, groups of female southern elephant seals return to the coast to mate with the males who have won the battle.

Southern elephant seals spend most of their time at sea and only return to the shore during the breeding season or when they molt. At the beginning of the annual breeding season (December-January), groups of male southern elephant seals arrive at the beach first, and everyone "shows their muscles" for hegemony.. A beach usually only produces a "beach owner".But the status of beach owners may be challenged at any time.

The name elephant seal comes from its huge and prominent nose, which is similar in shape to an elephant, but only male elephant seals have it. Its main function is to make sounds. Male elephant seals have a strong sense of territory. If other male elephant seals invade its territory, it will not hesitate to send out’.Lion roar’The strange sounds made in some caves are like the warnings made by seals. Ideally, it is to achieve the effect of defeat without fighting.

If it really doesn’t work, we can only resort to force, which often ends in bloodshed. First, the two sides do difficult yoga moves (stand up) and hit each other with meat bombs, then you take a bite and I take a bite. After the comparison, the fatter one will watch. The fatter.The stronger the lethality, the stronger the endurance.. However, the male southern elephant seal is naturally prepared for this kind of battle, and the neck fat is particularly thick, which generally does not lead to death or serious injury. Therefore, anyone who has seen wild southern elephant seals must have seen their rudeness and irritability.

With the roar of the earth-shattering, the two sides were bitten black and blue, and the winner was gradually divided. The winning king can bring 40-50 females who landed on the beach in estrus into the harem., up to 270.Due to the lure of huge benefits, all male southern elephant seals are challenged and challenged throughout the breeding season. Among them, the "beach boss" is the busiest. In addition to completing the sowing task, he has to face the challenge from passers-by to drive away other male seals (the loser lingers on the edge of the beach, trying to mate with the female seal quickly before being driven away, and if he is lucky, he can pass your own genes). Because of too many things, the "beach owner" didn’t have time to feed at all, so in just one month, he could only scrape by on the huge fat reserves in his body.

Research data show that only 2-3% of male southern elephant seals are found every year.Have the opportunity to inherit genes. In a large-scale paternity test, scientists studied a population on the beaches of the Falkland Islands and found that 125 offspring were born within two years (the largest number of offspring recorded by men was 500), among which110 descendants belong to the same father. In addition, 72% of males have never had a single mating phenomenon, and even some individuals have never died of old age (single to death). It can be said that drought does not die, and floods do not die. It is precisely because of this struggle that the huge gap in resource allocation has led to the development of males in the direction of huge size.

When I was born, I weighed about 50 kilograms, which quadrupled in one month!

The pregnant period of female southern elephant seals is usually 9 months, but they can give birth after 12 months of pregnancy. The cub weighs about 50 kilograms at birth, but within one month, the cub’s weight can be quadrupled. The main reason is that the milk of female southern elephant seals contains a lot ofOil.

When the baby elephant seal is born, the milk secreted by the female elephant seal contains about 12% fat. Two weeks later, this number increased to more than 55%, giving the liquid a pudding-like consistency. In contrast, humans only account for 3.5%. So in just 30 days, the weight of the cubs rose steadily, while the weight of the female southern elephant seal decreased slowly, losing at least one third of its weight. Cubs are usually born on the beach during the breeding season, so cubs are often crushed to death by males.

Conclusion:

Historically, southern elephant seals have been hunted to extinction by humans. Later, because the number was too small, the cost of a trip to the South Pole was not worth mentioning. Since 1964, the number of southern elephant seals has been able to recuperate. Since then, their numbers have rebounded rapidly, and the southern elephant seal is considered to be the least concerned species. However, due to overfishing, marine pollution and climate change in Antarctic waters, the future of the southern elephant seal is in danger.

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