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I left off last week describing how young males wait offshore for opportunities to come ashore and mate with unprotected females. Backing up a bit, the elephant seals come to sandy beaches along the central California coast in January and early February to have their pups. The females ultimately get divided up into groups (called harems) that are controlled by large dominant males called Beachmasters. Each beachmaster will hold as many females as he can. Beachmasters are usually old, large bulls that have endured hundreds of battles with other bulls. In addition to size and the length of their proboscis, the amount of scarring is used to age these massive animals. In my opinion the bull above in still not at the top of his game. He is large, has a long proboscis, but still does not has the amount of scarring on his neck and proboscis as a dominant beachmaster. He may hold a few females but not as many as the most dominant males. Also his territory is closer to the water and not the cliffs. To hold turf closer to the cliffs you have to be prepared to have more encounters/battles and not back down. Maybe in a few more years and a lot more battles this bull will achieve a more dominant status.