Stephanie Zappelli covered the H5N1 HPAI situation at Piedras Blancas for the San Luis Obispo Tribune. www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
12.03.2026 01:35
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Stephanie Zappelli covered the H5N1 HPAI situation at Piedras Blancas for the San Luis Obispo Tribune. www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
Researchers have identified H5N1 HPAI in a dead otter and a dead sea lion in Año Nuevo area. This expands the outbreak to two more marine mammal species. Report dead or sick marine mammals to the Stranding Hotline: (866) 767-6114. pandemicinsights.ucdavis.edu/h5-marine-ou...
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
Yes, they are the same seals. They migrate, and seals move between locations. Cal Poly Professor Heather Liwanag and her Team Ellie are monitoring them.
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
Dr. Robinson and Dr. Roxanne Beltran, Assistant Professor, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, are at the center of a modern disease outbreak that is playing out. pandemicinsights.ucdavis.edu/h5-marine-ou...
Follow tagged adult females seals my.wildlifecomputers.com/data/map/?id...
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Up-to-the-moment information about the outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza from one of the lead investigators on site, Dr. Patrick Robinson, director of the Año Nuevo Reserve, north of Santa Cruz, California.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng4e...
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Weaners learn to swim, hold their breath, and dive before they depart the beach on their first migration. Splashing in a pool is a start!
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At Año Nuevo, not at Piedras Blancas -- yet. On high alert.
news.mongabay.com/2026/02/avia...
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Valentines Day among the elephant seals. This beachmaster mates with a female while her weaned pup stays out of the way. Getting next year’s pup started.
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So is on the Editorial Board? Members are not listed.
This senior elephant seal bull has a nose (technically, proboscis) so long, it does look like a trunk. It doubles over on the beach. His prime breeding may be over, though. Recreated far from the females and their pups, out of the active battles for dominance and breeding rights.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
This is a panorama of the south viewpoint at Piedras Blancas yesterday afternoon. This is the high point of the pup season. Pups at all levels of development are on the beach, from skinny newborns to fat weaned pups. Low tide.
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
They continued the fight in the water. It appeared to end in a draw, with both returning to different ends of the beach.
The battle continues. Bulls have unique, individual calls. They recognize each other and won’t fight again.
This senior elephant seal bull detected some insult from another, and wasn’t going to let him get away with it. The bull on the right, the challenger, already shows bleeding wounds on his chest shield. I met up with a group of photographers this morning. Two more videos follow.
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Captions, anyone? Thanks to Claudia Harmon Worthen for this photo, which she captions: You crack me up, Elmer!
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This newborn elephant seal pup knows what it takes to survive. It chases off the gull that’s trying to steal the rich milk.
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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Lots of newborn elephant seal pups on the beach! They struggle to nurse, but succeed well enough. Another pregnant female comes ashore in the background. Beautiful day after the storm, extremely low tide. Tomorrow at 8 am the tide will be one of the higher of the year, a King Tide.
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
A group of visitors and I watched this elephant seal mother give birth this morning. That darn gull irritated her, pecking at the birth products as the pup was born. We watched for about an hour and a half.
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Another Central Coast marine mammal, southern sea otters.
news.mongabay.com/2025/12/zomb...
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A second pup has already joined Gingerbread, the first pup of the season, at the Piedras Blancas rookery.
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/c...
First elephant seal pup of the 2025-2026 breeding season born last night. Named Gingerbread. Settled next to mother. Sex undetermined.
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First elephant seal pup of the season born last night. More than 5,000 will join him or her during the breeding season. The pup hadn’t nursed yet when these pictures were taken, but was flipping sand.
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This morning's King Tide reached 7.4 feet at the Port San Luis tide gauge, a few inches higher than predicted, and flooded the Pasadena parking lot in Baywood Park.
A kayak in the foreground, bald eagles perched on grasses barely above the water. Many other birds, and the rolling green hills, in background.
Bald eagles in a flooded marsh during #KingTides. Morro Bay State Park, December 4, 2025
A senior bull announces his arrival — and a younger, smaller bull reacts. Bulls have unique signature calls, and can recognize each other.
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The vaccine against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza tested in elephant seal last summer worked. Now the vaccine is being given to the endangered Hawaiian Monk Seals.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/s...
Now, l;et's find a way to immunize elephant seals. www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...
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Choose better words.
I can’t be with the seals on this Thanksgiving, but will post photos of the first bulls on the beach next week. In the meantime, here’s an article about how magic seal milk is.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/25/s...
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More on the elephant seal bulls, on their way to Piedras Blancas from their foraging grounds along the continental shelf for the winter breeding season. A big bull arrived today, he may be the first!
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
