Scientists have shared what it looks like when two huge elephant seals battle it out to see who will become top dog for the mating season.
In the footage, two enormous seals writhe around in the surf, trying to bite each other. “This video captures a high-stakes drama on the beach: a direct challenge for dominance,” says Lindsay Young, vice president of research at National Geographic Pristine Seas.
This spectacular combat is about who will have mating rights over the females. “During the breeding season, a single, massive reigning male (called a beachmaster) guards a large group of females,” says Young.
Here, a younger male challenged the dominant male for the position. The interloper “decides he is big enough to match the [beachmaster] and aggressively throws down the gauntlet to take his place,” she says.
Although dominance behaviours are a normal part of life for elephant seals, it’s not common for full-blown fights to break out because males have other ways of showing their dominance, such as bellowing at each other.
“In the wild, fighting is dangerous and exhausting, so rivals usually try to settle their differences using loud, booming roars and aggressive posturing to size each other up. Most of the time, one seal backs down,” she says. “Seeing them skip these more subtle signals and erupt into a full-scale battle means the challenger is genuinely confident he can win, giving us a rare front-row seat to a literal ‘changing of the guard’.”
When fights like these do break out, it’s important that the contenders have ample fat reserves to give them energy for the extensive clash.
And building up this blubber requires a healthy ocean, says Young: “By protecting their feeding grounds from overfishing and climate change, we ensure these magnificent giants have the energy to keep fighting their natural battles for generations to come.”
Image and video credit: Steve Spence / National Geographic Pristine Seas
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