Instead, researchers analyse the composition of smaller hard tissues back in the lab that keep more detailed records of the animal’s activity.įor the study, the scientists inferred the eating habits of 31 male southern elephant seals from the Western Antarctic Peninsula by analysing a whisker sample from each seal that holds stable isotopes – chemical clues about the food they’ve eaten in the past. Getting close enough to study the diet of male elephant seals in the wild can be challenging, given their powerful stature and aggressive temperament – they can weigh up to four tonnes, dwarfing their more placid, smaller female counterparts. Male southern elephant seal diets are relatively understudied compared to females. “But females are known to maintain a fairly specialised diet between one another, just nowhere near as extreme as what we found with the males in our research.”

“We didn’t specifically compare males to females in this study,” Ms Cormack says. The research, published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, is one of the first studies to analyse the diet of adult male southern elephant seals, who, despite their impressive size, are relatively understudied compared to females. “So, they are extremely picky eaters, each with their own unique favourite foods they go after, whether it be fish, squid species, crustaceans or octopus.” “They could have the pick of the buffet, and yet each male southern elephant seal eats a lot of the same food, which is just a fraction of what’s on offer,” says Andrea Cormack, lead author of the study and a PhD candidate at UNSW Science. In other words, they’re very fussy eaters. But it turns out they don’t just want to eat anything and everything.Īccording to new research led by UNSW Sydney, male southern elephant seals have their own favourite foods, and they like to stick with them. As one of the top predators roaming Antarctica, the sizeable southern elephant seal has its fair selection of the menu.

Baby elephant outline clip art