Southern Elephant Seal

Mirounga leonina.South Atlantic, Falkland Islands. 1901.

Very few museums own a specimen this large, and even fewer have one over a hundred years old. The skin, skull and teeth are original; the skeleton is in storage.

FLYING SEA ELEPHANT
Elephant seals are the largest seals in the world. The male can grow to six and a half meters long and weigh up to three and a half tons; the female is significantly smaller at around three and a half meters long and no more than 900 kilograms. Due to their enormous size, elephant seals can dive to record depths of 2,400 meters. Their considerable blood volume enables them to absorb and store a great deal of oxygen.
In mating season, bulls hold fierce fights for control of as many cows as possible, inflating their trunk-like nose to intimidate their opponent. These ongoing fights have their price: at just fourteen years, the life expectancy of male elephant seals is very short.
This huge seal is without doubt one of the most valuable mounted specimens owned by the NHM, but due to its size it has caused frequent headaches for those in charge. “In this connection I would point out above all an unusually large mounted male specimen and the corresponding mounted skeleton of the extremely rare elephant seal, Macrorhinus leoninus L.”, wrote the director of the imperial and royal Natural History Museum at the time, Franz Steindachner, in his annual report for 1910, and “since there was no suitable space for this exhibit in the exhibition halls, it had to be put on display in the first floor vestibule.” In the 1990s the exhibit was transported with great effort down to the entrance hall, and in July 2011 to its current location. In order to avoid damaging the piece, a mobile crane hoisted the unwieldy historic exhibit in through a window.