ELEPHANT SEAL
				Phylum: Class: Order: Family: Species: Chordata Mammalia Pinnipedia Phocidae Mirounga angustirostris

These are the largest of the seals. They may reach up to 23 feet long (7 m), and the bulls may weigh up to 8,000 lbs. (3,630 kg). The bull also has a large drooping nose, which gets even bigger during the breeding season. Rival bulls fight fiercely for ownership of territories on the breeding beaches, each striving to gather a harem of females.

There are two species of the elephant seal, both similar in size and in appearance. The northern lives on islands off the coast of California and Mexico. The southern is found in the southern Atlantic and Antarctica, and there are more of them. Elephant seals eat fish and squid.

Sealers and hunters almost wiped them out completely in the nineteenth century, but these seals are now protected by international law.