News > For deep-diving elephant seals, it takes lots of work to stay fat

For deep-diving elephant seals, it takes lots of work to stay fat

Scientists have conducted the most thorough study to date of the unique feeding behaviour of northern elephant seals, focusing on the females of the species during arduous two-month post-breeding migrations.

The seals were found to spend upwards of 20 hours every day - and sometimes a full 24 hours - in continuous deep-diving to feed on multitudes of small fish, rather than the larger prey favoured by other deep-diving marine mammals, to gain the body fat essential for successful reproduction and insulation in the frigid depths. They fed 1,000 to 2,000 times daily.