Congratulations, Its A Tail!

Its A Tail!

Originally uploaded by Dawn Endico.

Last January I got to see four elephant seal births. I was really lucky to see the first one. The mom was close to the surf, and pretty far from me. I had no idea that she was in labor and just happened to be looking out that direction when I caught a big wet 'sploosh'. Wow!

After that, I went back to the other end of the beach where there were a bunch of cows waiting to give birth, and several people watching and trying to figure out which ones were in labor.

Someone noticed that this one was about to give birth when she lifted up her tail and there was a tiny little black tail sticking out too. Two more births followed this one around sunset but it was too dark for pictures.

If you watch the slideshow at high speed you can pretend its a movie of the birth.