The Errant Elephant Seal

I live not far from the coast, in a beautiful area of California about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Recently, on my birthday, my friend Antoine took me for a ride up the coast to have lunch in the delightful little town of Cambria, just south of San Simeon. When we got there, it was still early for lunch, so we decided to go up toward San Simeon to see the elephant seals.

Several years ago, for reasons unknown to us humans, the elephant seals commandeered a beach near San Simeon, and began to establish a colony. At first there were only a few, but gradually their numbers have grown, until now there are hundreds, and they have become a subject of great interest to tourists.

The wind was blowing, and it had begun to rain, but our curiosity led us out anyway into the raw weather. We parked and walked to the wire fence that has been erected to protect the seals from curious visitors, or perhaps to protect the visitors from the seals, I'm not sure which. I expected lots of activity, but instead, was surprised to see hundreds of huge cigar-shaped mounds of blubber lying motionless on the beach, "basking" in the wind and rain.

At that moment, there were only three active seals: a male who had laid claim to a female, the female herself, and another male who fancied himself as a replacement for beau number one. He kept inching closer and closer, until the first seal sensed his presence and turned and lunged toward him.  The intruder began to back up, and then he stopped. The first seal  hurled himself forward toward the challenger, mouth open, looking very fierce. This time the intruder backed up for sure, going about as fast backwards as he probably could go forwards. Then he gave up and flopped away.

When we left the parking lot, and turned toward Cambria, we noticed a seal in the grass to the right of the road. We wondered what he was doing there, so far from the rest of the colony. It seemed odd.

The next night, I heard on the news that an elephant seal had crossed the road and somehow gotten through the fence of San Simeon Ranch. He was apparently having a wonderful time rollicking there in the grass. Every night after that, he was on the evening news, with pictures of his adventures in his new-found playground. He captured everyone's imagination with his happy antics. He found a little pool of water, and looked the picture of bliss as he lay in it, gazing at the sky.

Men from various agencies were out there trying to figure out how to lure him safely back across the road, but no one had been able to come up with a good enough idea. He was happy where he was. Officials were afraid he would be hit by a car, if he crossed the road by himself, and be injured, or perhaps cause injury to whoever might hit him.

The local TV station, KSBY, had a contest among their viewers to think of a name for the errant seal. There were various suggestions, such as Dumbo, Scooter, Rosebud (because he was on the Hearst Ranch), and Lucky, to name a few. Lucky won. At the end of the week, the men who were trying to relocate Lucky finally succeeded in persuading him across the road, and back to the colony.

I suppose that was a good thing, but he did look awfully happy in his private pool.