The Insane Biology of: The Elephant Seal

[@What_111]

"THE IDEAL MALE BODY" Oh man my confidence boosting fr

[@Justakatto]

Lmaooo

[@atlasknox7514]

Ideal male body duh

[@thememeguy3477]

man I wish I had top comment

[@Matt.m6]

Iseal male body

[@DJ_Studios-OFFICIAL]

YOU BEAT ME TO THE JOKE AGHHHHG

[@gingerfoxx1476]

I love how Neil the Seal has such a reputation for being the neighborhood bad boy, but the locals just have to accept him to some degree. I hope the future brings a happy outcome for him as well as the locals.

[@FischerNilsA]

Doubt it. The moment he gets a human hurt, some reason/justification for shooting him will be found. At least thats usually how it goes with bears or tigers or elephants when they show up in settled areas and loose their shyness. Its cute how the folks in the village work around him, but doubtful if its sustainable. Especially if he moves into sexualized agression with viability.

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

​@@FischerNilsAit's very unlikely the Tasmanian Parks officials will resort to shooting him... Australia is one of the better resourced countries at dealing with this type of thing. Although there's a lot of discussion about how they're going to discourage him from coming ashore in the future. They don't want to interfere with him too much, but obviously it's not desirable that he continues to interact with people for his wellbeing and people's safety. But he's certainly getting the attention from the folks who know what to do about it.

[@TrueAohaku]

I'm curious why they don't wall the beach off. Seems like it'd be the ideal solution.

[@____Carnage____]

@@TrueAohaku That’s definitely an easier said than done situation

[@unclemikescomedy]

What if it is the smell of humankind ground into the layers of skin and blubber that repelled orca attacks? (Hear say is that orcas don't attack humans *in the wild*... though their intelligence level tells us they wouldn't fall for a simple smell cloak)

[@aaronf4841]

Beach Master sounds like one of the dad archetypes like the Grill Master. An Eldritch creature in flip flops, cargo shorts, and a bucket hat reminding everyone to wear enough sunscreen.

[@realscience]

I know this guy lol

[@exiledtobronze8694]

And a metal detector to find absolutely nothing with

[@sirBrouwer]

@@exiledtobronze8694 no that is not the beach master. those are the foragers together with the beach fishers. the beach master is the one that controls the lifeguards (they may one day become the master) has the absolute best spot on said beach with enough food and drinks to last. and when they smell competition they will come barring there rolled up newspaper and a breath that smells of a lot of coffee and heavy tobacco.

[@qwertyferix]

​@@realscienceRemember to reapply, Steph! You don't want a sunburn like last time.

[@salaltschul3604]

"It's not my fault if you get sunburned!"

[@Sprite_525]

5:34 “only 30 to 40 percent of seal pups survive their first dive” that makes me understand why a long-surviving elephant seal is so aggressive, the chill ones probably died on day one!

[@whyarewestillhere7073]

How does aggressivenes help with avoiding sharks and orcas?

[@mek7333]

​@@whyarewestillhere7073may something to do with fight or flight. When animal have high fight or flight respond tend to be more aggressive

[@primus4cameron]

I don't get it. With a two in three chance of death in "their first dive" what is the chance of death in their second dive. I mean these seals dive many times a day. What would the juvenile population be after a week or so? Out of a population of 1,000 pups there would be less than 4 alive after just 5 dives each - (1/3)^5~0.0041 - so I guess they're SUPER fast learners ... or something???

[@Sprite_525]

@@primus4cameron my guess is they have fast developing instincts, but there’s probably a slight window during the first time when they’re very distracted by the cold and incapable of seeing far enough to understand what to do.

[@Sprite_525]

@@whyarewestillhere7073 avoidance is not the only strategy required to survive against the vast biodiversity in the wild. If a shark bites a human, for example, get away if possible but then you punch its nose or eyes if you can’t. Most interactions are like this: avoid but fight if needed. And it often is needed.

[@salaltschul3604]

I'm an Aussie and I've always felt for Neil the Seal. He's going back home to fight and mate...but he's alone there.

[@iuchoi]

might be something aquariums could help with

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Yeah, if he's ever going to become a Beach Master, he's going to need to find a new beach!

[@FutureAIDev2015]

Resident: "sigh....Neil, you really can't keep doing this..." Neil: (side eye) "...AAAAAAAAA"

[@BullEye-cb2mw]

What are you so dumb

[@BullEye-cb2mw]

Ok

[@cigmaoliver]

@@BullEye-cb2mw Yeah It's Survival of the Fattest!

[@a_friendly_idiot]

My sister walked during the "raw sexual aggression" part and said, dang! What are you watching!?

[@THE-ONE-WHO-KLEPS]

Bruh💀💀💀

[@takumi2023]

Not that bad. Just rewind and show her

[@ktbmk]

show her

[@noend7879]

​@@ktbmkthanks for reminding me how dirty my mind is

[@beaub152]

​@@noend7879bro get off the internet lmao wtf

[@greenman6141]

It's hard not to love Neil the Seal. On South Georgia, in some places there are still some buildings left. With walls and roof. Even if the big male elephant seals want to fight each other most of the time, when it is the breeding or moulting time of year, if you look inside those buildings, all you'll find are HUGE male elephant seals. They clearly like being out of the wind, and perhaps the sun. And no females, pups, or small males are in there. The big males appear to have scared off everyone else, but they're willing to share the space with each other. It's really surreal looking. Like some nightmare frat.

[@AroundTheBlockAgain]

The Sausage Shed

[@eggfrittata]

nightmare frat lol

[@exiledtobronze8694]

"7 tons of raw sexual aggression" reminds me of highschool

[@sheikhzaman]

😂

[@artawhirler]

Considering their deep diving and huge appetites, I'm surprised they're not covered with scars from Giant Squid like Sperm Whales often are.

[@Mishmellow]

I think shedding their top layer of skin each year would remove any superficial scars.

[@Help-c5x]

Despite their size, a Giant Squid would probably be able to overpower an Elephant Seal most of the time, or at least long enough to drown them. Not saying it's impossible, but it is highly unlikely that an Elephant Seal would survive the encounter which is why we haven't seen any with squid scars.

[@artawhirler]

@@Help-c5x Remember that Giant Squid come in ALL SIZES. They don't start out huge. They start out tiny, and grow bigger over time. This means that an adult male Elephant Seal could successfully attack the vast majority of Giant Squid - all but the very biggest of them. Although if he attacked one that was about his own size, I'm thinking it would put up a pretty good fight before eventually getting metabolized into seal blubber.

[@hongchan1202]

6:36 I didn't they could scratch their own head 😂😂😂😂

[@suicicada]

That through me off too. Looked straight up like a human 😂

[@gormauslander]

Me neither! I was very surprised by that

[@LeilaChapman-u1t]

Fr 💀

[@volcano.mitchell]

Yeah, Erm what the sigma?

[@Strawb3rryD3ath]

so can cats and dogs whats the surprise?

[@phila8226]

If you are in the States, you can see Northern Elephant seals at several locations along the West Coast. The biggest and easiest to see are at Piedras Blancas just north of San Simeon. CA. Also at Ano Nuevo State Reserve just north of Santa Cruz and Point Reyes north of San Francisco. Worth the visit particularly around the new year when the pups are born and the males are fighting over the females. Huge, very impressive animals.

[@realscience]

Would love to see them one day

[@nickmitsialis]

@@realscience I've seen 'em at Ano Nuevo (an official tour), tried to do it at Piedras Blancas (they were RIGHT OFF the side of HWY1, but my wife would freak out when I tried to walk down among 'em==at the time I went pre 2000 it was totally uncontrolled); and "somewhere south of Halfmoon Bay", my brother in law's Akita and I walked up to an exiled 'bachelor male' just chilling against a sand dune. The Akita tried to make friends but the Big Guy wasn't having it; he finally rose up and 'roared' at her and she got the message and left with me. I got close enough to see the 'half moon' shark bite scars on it's flank and the code letters marked on it's pelt with hair dye.

[@acidbog]

jejeje ano nuevo

[@nickmitsialis]

@@acidbog yes,right in Santa Cruz County

[@acidbog]

@@nickmitsialis it's just funny because when Ñ is replaced by an N it says new butthole and that will never not be funny

[@flauschigesbusch9825]

5:15 omg that seal cried in the perfect moment

[@davidegaruti2582]

Real science exposed telling seal pups they'll likely die

[@hugheshammy6311]

​@@davidegaruti2582 Real Science keeping it real am i right

[@moonshinershonor202]

It's hard for a smol seal out here. That's why puberty is their comeuppance.

[@pixelmaster98]

16:30 "it becomes greatly elongated during the breeding season, and can then be erected" lmao, looks like Charles Darwin had fun writing his notes xD

[@FutureAIDev2015]

AYOOOO

[@leogama3422]

Silly, silly Charlie

[@Crystalline-Mew]

@@FutureAIDev2015why does that translate to come on..?

[@LincolnDWard]

I've never seen a seal scratching its head before. That was the wildest part of this whole video for me.

[@jacob_dcdn]

Same heere 😂 it was a truly Wau moment

[@fikipilot]

Real Science is one of the best storytelling and well researched factual content creators. One of my favorite KZbin channels is Real Science. Real Science is one of the greatest KZbin channels of ALL TIME!!!

[@FishareFriendsNotFood972]

THE IDEAL MALE BODY........hmmmm, gonna send this to my trainer and tell him these are my body goals

[@sirBrouwer]

well start to eat a lot of fish in that case. it helped them well.

[@Kekoapono]

4:57 - Okay, that is a fantastic facial expression. I'm low-key disappointed this wasn't used as the thumbnail.

[@Josef-ed7dk]

Bro my dog makes this face all the time 💀

[@victorialamanova7189]

Amazing writing, as always. Really impressed by your story telling, very well structured and engaging, very interesting facts. Stumbled upon the channel when the video about crows was recommend.

[@Vitnaval]

Have a faint memory of a nature document, where an adult elephant seal bull was sexually frustrated and crushed a spine of a pup. Those people are way too relaxed and content around a beast like that.

[@fil4648]

I mean, it can't really move that quickly on land, it's so easy to avoid him.

[@Vitnaval]

@@fil4648 As long as you move away! :)

[@mrmosty5167]

Man I've been waiting for this one! I was kinda hoping you'd go into how they actually move on land. It's crazy how fast they can move forward or backwards without legs and the flippers don't seem to be able to do much at all on land

[@adrenalinerush369]

Fight for the "beach", the "beachmaster". Juvenile of me but I snickered.

[@RD1R]

Bender is the ultimate beachmaster

[@adrianqx]

Thank God im not an elephant seal , would definitely have died a virgin

[@rockyevans1584]

Y'chubby chaser?

[@springdeerling7866]

I never thought about marine mammals and decompression sickness. Theyre so amazing

[@lindean2013]

My spouse has memorized how to make coffee at home for me. We live rural too and order coffee beans because I’m picky. We got a grinder and a nice pot for our registry and as someone who works from home- this has made my job and my life so special. I love coffee, sometimes he surprises me with having it made before I’m up, then I sit down at my desk or studio space and get to mello to life in the morning lol

[@guava9343]

11:34 can someone tell me how scientists figure this out? Like I imagine its pretty hard to analyse an elephant seals lungs whilst it’s diving

[@tursiopsgirl8]

I remember reading a paper (can't remember details sorry) during college that was a study on captive elephant seals. Apparently, while sleeping they undergo periods of sleep apnea almost as if they're practicing diving in their sleep. The paper was proposing getting additional info on their dive abilities that way. A lot of information comes from studies on captive animals as well as blood sampling before and after dives and looking at the changes in blood gasses.

[@victorzarenin9286]

Will it be a problem for Neil the Seal when it's time for him to start a family and the "home beach" he returns to every year has no females, or any other seals at all? I'm afraid he's going to be stuck living around humans, maladjusted and unable to get on with his life.

[@jessicahay9305]

He long ago reached sexual maturity, and yes.

[@evilbred974]

He'll end up finding himself a single New Zealand mother and working a dead end job until alcoholism and heart disease ends it all.

[@Zchizoidddd]

NEIL MENTIONED?! LETS GOOOO!

[@alexandervargas8707]

NEIL 🦭NEIL🦭NEIL🦭

[@fullmetalpwn]

12:20 for some reason that penguin casually strolling past the camera is hilarious to me

[@thereal_hannahmontana]

Perfectly timed upload for me to watch before bed after work. Quickly becoming a favorite channel of mine!! ❤❤❤

[@davidschaftenaar6530]

I'm so glad this channel took off in the end and is no longer quite so criminally underrated. You've always made great content and reliably teach me something I didn't know with every video.

[@smalltreefern]

I saw them in the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and was amazzzed by how large they are, standing right in front of you. i had no idea!

[@Khajar]

All I could think about was the Futurama episode about them. It was pretty much spot on!

[@realscience]

how did I not know about this

[@Khajar]

@@realscience Futurama Season 7 Episode 13 Naturama

[@kekero540]

"what are you gonna do big guy? sit on me" Neil "that's not only the plan but my motivation as well."

[@strangesocks]

Every video is a gift

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

Not only do elephant seals have noses reminiscent of actual elephants, they can be almost as big as elephants, too!

[@bowietheslowie]

The Elephant Seal breathing out before a dive would also make it less buoyant

[@FireThemAll]

Well done. Thoroughly informative. I learnned a lot about these animals I thought I already knew all about. 😊 Excellent narration. Appreciate the very subtle background music as well.

[@gabriellynch2764]

They dive down to Sperm Whale depths? I had no idea. That's crazy!

[@MayaMachina-n8s]

Potential Idea for future video: The sapindus shrub/small tree genus and their "soap nuts". Would be interesting to learn more about a plant that gives a fruit so versatile in cleaning use!

[@thomas1848]

I never would have thought any mammal would EXHALE all of their air before diving, surviving for 2 hours with NO AIR! So cool!

[@ecstaticbutter9164]

You have one of the BEST KZbin channels. I will binge your videos. I just love them!

[@BONZTV-ANIMALDISCOVERY]

Awesome! This video is so adorable; the seals look so cute and funny. It's delightful to see them playing and interacting with each other. Thanks for sharing!

[@fo4480]

Elephant Seal is the epitome of being built different

[@GrannySoupLadle]

So size disparity between male and female individuals in a species correlates with the level of sexual aggression. Pretty good rule of thumb I guess.

[@sirBrouwer]

often for land based vertebrates it is important for the male to show why it is the best candidate for a female. by being bigger and stronger then all others it showed that it had the most resources available to survive and so it's offspring will have the best chance. in other animals you see the opposite males are much smaller as there only function is that mating and after that or beyond that they are worth less. they can be tiny as the female will have to do all the work it self.

[@LeonardGreenpaw]

very true, even true when the females are bigger, like in hyenas. Or when they are much much bigger, you have the insects where the female eats the male. Thankfully I dont know any vertabrates that to this.

[@evilbred974]

I would say it correlates with species with high levels of polyamory. If only the biggest and strongest get to mate, there's a huge pressure to be big and strong.

[@GrannySoupLadle]

@@evilbred974 yeah I should say ‘sexual aggression in males’

[@thekinginyellow1744]

@@evilbred974 I don't know if it's true, but certainly makes a lot of sense. I know that with Golden Eagles, who mate for life the females are larger than the males.

[@zacharyhardgrave6801]

I always watch as soon as you guys post. Love your content!

[@cher8005]

I would be delighted to have Neil the Elephant Seal hang out in my back garden. These people just don't appreciate him for all he's worth. Tell him to come to Winnipeg and I'll happily host him in my garden (though getting here, as it's land-locked, could be a bit of a struggle for him).

[@justinbentz1229]

You have a great narrator voice. And the way you break it down is awesome. Thanks for the information you give🙏

[@richardm9934]

Wow, you somehow found more info and footage than I have seen, and I have scoured the internet searching about these cute megaworms! Great video

[@Jay_Force_One]

I love how the whole community knows him. Additionally, we all know they’re extremely dangerous, but I don’t believe Niel would hurt anyone. It seems as if he is pretty comfortable with humans. Nobody bothers him, so he won’t bother them……except lay in their yard and be noisy.

[@AJKingCrab]

currently working on elephant seal prey caloric density research, this is the perfect video to have as background noise! XD

[@captnnintendom2284]

12:22 Pinguin casually walking by 😂

[@bossyspaghetti]

I opened the comments right when he went by, and this made it 10 times funnier😂

[@KorithStoneheart]

I think Antarctic Ocean sounds cooler than Southern Ocean, especially because there's an Artic Ocean in the north

[@fplatkrtem]

23:53 why did you wait so long to tell us this, ive been eating like an elephant seal in hopes of becoming a beachmaster with a harem of my own

[@ThatElephantSeal]

My nose has greatly anticipated this video, thank you. Shout out to Neil the Seal, hes a real one.

[@gracielags6826]

Quick question, if 1% of males father 80-90% of pups, how do elephant seals prevent inbreeding?

[@Mike.The.Jeweler]

They don't. As it turns out large portions of the animal kingdom don't really care about inbreeding, usually sheer volume provides enough genetic diversity amongst large colonies / populations, and the issues really only compound when populations dwindle

[@TheAriMartinez]

Lots of moms.

[@gracielags6826]

@@Mike.The.Jewelerthanks, that’s really interesting

[@Mike.The.Jeweler]

@@gracielags6826 happy to help friend!

[@thekinginyellow1744]

In addition to what mike said, if some of the young have negative mutations, they generally die before adulthood so that the mutations don't spread. Inbreeding is more dangerous for humans because so many of us survive to adulthood.

[@XDarkGreyX]

Something to strive for. Time to reverse the weight loss after a vacation full of delicious food.

[@jeffbergstrom]

New to this channel. This was surprisingly well done. Good job!

[@GrannySoupLadle]

Elephant seals got nothin on M’Lord

[@eh4907]

Thumbnail definitely had me thinking we'd be discussing the God-Emperor.

[@lwliu1112]

So is there a colony that Neil can become Beach Master of? Because it looks like he’s choosing people instead of other seals. And that’s worrisome. Where is the colony/beach where Neil was born?

[@restitvtororbis5330]

Neil was born on tasmania, that's the issue 😅

[@evananderson1455]

Neil is absolutely beautiful with that silver coat

[@cody4561]

I didn’t know elephant seals were so interesting, this is a really good video

[@hazelberry]

I knew they got big but didn't realize they were THAT big. For reference a semi truck cab is about as long and heavy as a fully grown male elephant seal. That's absolutely insane!

[@Phatcaulk69]

The transition from seals to coffee is on point.

[@planetpeterson2824]

I was doing some research on this for a book I'm writing, and I read that the male nose is so large that it can recapture water during exhalation because they spend so much time on the beach that they won't eat or drink for months while they compete for mates.

[@zacknicley8150]

Can you imagine exhaling all your air and not taking another breath for two hours? That would be such a weird feeling.

[@David_7171]

Thankyou for not body shaming Neil’s dad

[@KlaxontheImpailr]

Beachmaster is such a badass title.

[@stefancaldaruse2200]

idea:the insane biology of the mudskipper

[@marcoscalderon7979]

Love all the "insane biology of:" videos. Great work!

[@JeremiahPTTN]

Another masterpiece as expected!

[@Audacityy-]

Favorite thumbnail of all time😂

[@garebaregoof4226]

Simple...I see a new video from Real Science, I like, I download to my youtube account, and i download a version to an external SSD. My personal favorite is the video on the Harpy Eagle. Thank you for the high quality content as always!

[@jimevers7776]

Well done, very good narration

[@flannel7977]

Hummingbird next please!!

[@astrea79]

15:06 "but their social maturity comes much later." Doesnt sound that much different from humans

[@DrewNorthup]

Dunno about coffee, but CHOCOLATE is a whole food group in this house.

[@k1ngk0k0s]

science is craaaazzzzyyyyy

[@snowkracker]

Wow that study is crazy. They spend most of their time underwater when they’re not on land. It’s awesome to think that these behemoths are likely diving at any given moment. Just hanging out at 2500m chasing squid and fish around.

[@MelindaOwens]

Forgot to say how stinky they are during the catastrophic molt. Penguin nesting grounds smell like fishy poop, but the elephant seals just smelled like decay.

[@greenhat7618]

I love how they use their fins to scratch their heads

[@LithiumBattery0]

Learning something new after months of distancing away from gadgets due to exam . Great video 😁.

[@horacebulregard9554]

Definitely clicked on this specifically because I keep watching neil videos and was pleased to see him come up lol

[@phileas007]

16kg of food per day? Hey, looks like I'm half-way to being a beachmaster already 😆

[@emilylong3253]

Thank you for this video, I learned a lot of information!

[@HandsomeSquidward-q7g]

Will. I. Am's "Chonky" song was playing in my head the whole time I was watching this.

[@ariefbudi427]

This is what peak performance look like

[@mabeSc]

When they say "technique", you mean that their whole body has evolved for this... Wanted to steal the secrets for deep dives.

[@raphaelhonore308]

Incredible video ! Continue what you are doing ! A one about Beluga ?

[@destrygriffith3972]

To me the thing that makes the show RICK AND MORTY so interesting is that they get it right so often - See the Gazorpazorp ep for exactly what would happen if humans were to go all elephant-seal.

[@tbella5186]

I KNEW this video would involve Neil!

[@Sarah-yj6lf]

0:50 The Nick Cannon of the sea.

[@darius896]

I must add elephant seal to my "species I want to brawl bucket list"

[@lukeallan6527]

Looks like my uncle. And sounds just like him too! Especially at the backyard barbecues...

[@artawhirler]

I love how the dominant males are called "Beachmasters"! Coolest name ever!! Way cooler than "silverback" ! 😅

[@ivytarablair]

holy crap...I've only ever seen cute elephant seal videos, these guys are SCARY! also - wow :D

[@Woad_Brah]

how the hell do those massive blobs even catch fish? it must be a *terrifying* sight to see an elephant seal underwater coming after you

[@diarmuidkuhle8181]

They may be slow and cumbersome on land, but all that blubber gives them buoyancy in the water. Their body mass isn't an issue in the habitat they are adapted for.

[@andre36wo]

2:36 passed out cuddled up between a boat and a fence in a strangers yard after a long journey of a night. I think I found my spirit animal

[@potatlerr]

the damn thumbnail is so surreal...at least to me at 10pm