A seal of the seas around Antarctica that dives deep to find food.
Adult males have a large nose that helps them produce loud calls, especially during the breeding season.
When southern elephant seals pursue prey in dark water, brief flashes sometimes occur nearby. In females travelling from the Kerguelen Islands, repeated light pulses closely coincided with head movements associated with attempts to catch prey. Bioluminescent organisms form part of these seals’ deep-sea food resources.
A 2020 study fitted light and movement recorders to seven post-breeding females in October 2017 and 2018 at the Kerguelen Islands and Península Valdés, Argentina. Recovered instruments from four animals allowed analysis beyond the continental shelf. Researchers inferred prey-capture attempts from abrupt head movements and compared their timing with light pulses. Flash-associated attempts were frequent in the two Kerguelen seals but uncommon in the two Valdés seals. One animal encountered more flash-associated attempts after entering a warm-water eddy. The share of inferred prey-capture attempts accompanied by flashes changed during that journey.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed in southern elephant seals at South Georgia. On 11 January 2024, British Antarctic Survey reported H5N1-positive samples. At that time, most fieldwork involving contact with animals was suspended, and staff intensified cleaning of clothing and equipment when moving between wildlife concentrations. Monitoring continued in collaboration with the territorial government and testing agency.