A male elephant seal is an awesome sight when viewed for the first time. Mature adults can weigh over 4 tons! They can also move pretty quickly when necessary so care is needed when approaching them. Each 'beachmaster' male controls a harem of many females and his task is twofold - procreate and keep the other males away! Fights regularly break out and can be bloody encounters, particularly if the males are well-matched in size.
Baby elephant seals are one of the cutest creatures known to man!. Within three weeks they are weaned and abandoned by their mothers who, having been fertilised by the 'beachmaster', then head back out to sea until next year. Baby seals grow ten-fold in these three weeks on the rich milk of their mother.
Elephant seals are also cantankerous and quarrelsome. A colony is a noisy place with squeaks, grunts, barks (and what sounds surprisingly like huge belching noises!) constantly erupting. Luckily they spend most of their time lounging and relaxing on the beach. They even takes breaks during fighting (presumably to recover their breath after exerting so much effort in the fray!).