Piedras Blancas Rookery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fighting bull elephant seals near Piedras Blancas
In winter, thousands of the animals can be found in the bay with a sandy beach

The elephant seal colony Piedras Blancas Rookery at Point Piedras Blancas is located on the Pacific coast on Highway 1 (also called Cabrillo Highway here ) in the town of San Simeon in San Luis Obispo County in California . Since the beginning of the 1990s, northern elephant seals have been found here for mating and littering times. The only two kilometers from the lighthouse Piedras Blancas Light Station distant Piedras Blancas Rookery is California's largest elephant seal colony and the largest mainland colony of this species in North America. It is a tourist attraction because of the rival fights among the bulls and the births that are clearly visible here.

history

For the first time, isolated elephant seals were spotted in 1978 in the bay of Piedras Blancas. In the winter of 1990 about 20 animals reached the bay. In the spring of the following year there were already around 400. In the 1992 birth season, a baby was born for the first time, in 1993 it was 50, in 1996 it was 1,000; in 2007 over 4,000 births were counted, bringing the total population of the colony to around 16,000 animals.

Since some of the animals that met here in the early stages were marked, the elephant seal colonies on San Miguel Island , San Nicolas Island and Año Nuevo Island are the places of origin . It is believed that the overcrowding there and the associated difficulties with birth and rearing led to the establishment of the new colony. It is controversial whether Piedras Blancas was already a colony before the excessive hunting of elephant seals in the 19th century; Usually elephant seals avoid the mainland because it is here that they can be attacked by terrestrial predators.

The increasingly growing and well-known colony became a threat to traffic on the coastal highway in the mid-1990s as vehicles were parked on either side of the lane and their occupants crossed the street, climbed fences, and crossed a Hearst Corporation private property to avoid the sea. To be able to watch elephants. After an exchange of land between the state and the corporation , a parking lot for onlookers was built between the highway and the beach and an official lookout point was created. A boardwalk was laid and fences, billboards and handicapped accessible facilities were set up by various agencies ( California Conservation Corps , California Coastal Conservancy , California State Parks , California Department of Transportation ).

Friends of the Elephant Seal

Friends of the Elephant Seal is a non-profit organization founded in November 1997. The aim of the volunteer work is to preserve and protect the Piedras Blancas colony and to educate people about elephant seals and marine life. Representatives of the organization are available at the observation point to answer questions and ensure the safety of people and animals.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sara Benson, Lonely Planet California Guide , ISBN 978-3-82978-5-686 , MairDumont , 2015
  2. ↑ a b John H. Bogacki and Carole Adams, Point Piedras Blancas, Chapter 7: Wildlife , ISBN 978-1-43963-6-350 , Arcadia Publishing, 2008 (in English)
  3. ↑ Annual Report to Congress, United States , Marine Mammal Commission (Ed.), 1997, p. 190 (in English)

Web links

  • Website of the Friends of the Elephant Seal (in English)

Coordinates: 35 ° 39 ′ 43 "  N , 121 ° 15 ′ 24"  W.