New article on elephant seal research

An article was published today in the San Jose Mercury News on some of the elephant seal acoustic research being conducted at Ano Nuevo State Reserve in northern California.  I've copied the link below and the first part of the text below that.  You can listen to some of the sounds of these amazing animals on the link to the article as well:

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_17612280

Scientists try to interpret elephant seal bellows

Nadia Drake - ndrake@mercurynews.com

Scientists learning the snorty language of Northern elephant seals are hoping to understand how the giant blubbery mammals use vocalizations to prevent costly fights and structure their colonies -- and how we can keep the expanding population safe.

Armed with microphones, researchers from UC Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences have spent hundreds of hours on the brush-filled, windy dunes and beaches of Año Nuevo State Park, tracking more than 160 elephant seals and recording some of their grumbly grunts and growls.

"These are fascinating animals, and they use sounds for really important parts of their lives," said Brandon Southall, a marine scientist and UC Santa Cruz research associate who studies elephant seal communication.

Like showing who's boss. Scientists think males use vocal calls to prevent fighting -- much like smack-talk between two guys in a bar -- since seals vocalize before coming to blows. Often, challenges are settled by the calls alone.

"It's striking how rare physical fights are," said Colleen Reichmuth, research director at UCSC's Pinniped Cognition and Sensory Systems Laboratory.

But when two males the size of a Ford Explorer fight, it's bloody and violent.

Once hunted to near-extinction, the Northern elephant seals have rebounded. Now, scientists are concerned about potential human impacts on the growing population, and they hope that understanding the seals' communication and organization will help protect the bulbous-nosed cutie-pies.

 "The more we can learn, the more we can predict how they'll respond to these types of encroachments and better protect them," said Caroline Casey, the project's field research coordinator.

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"It's striking how rare physical fights are," said Colleen Reichmuth, research director at UCSC's Pinniped Cognition and Sensory Systems Laboratory