We are once again raising funds to weigh the weanlings! Ano Nuevo Natural Reserve is home to nearly 10,000 northern elephant seals-one of the deepest-diving mammals on the planet! These seals travel thousands of miles each year and congregate back at Ano Nuevo, where up to 2,000 pups are born each winter. We would like to know more about how these pups survive their first year, how long they live, how they learn to forage, and how they navigate in the open ocean. To answer these questions, we have created a “weanling weighing” team. The team will take body measurements, insert flipper tags, and weigh 300 recently weaned pups (weanlings). This data will allow us to monitor their health right now and throughout their lives.
This is a critical year for the project because the extreme weather this winter has had large impacts on the seal colony, and we don’t yet know how this has affected the new cohort of weanlings. By weighing the seals, we can find out about the health of the mothers and their ability to successfully reproduce.
We need your help to “weigh the weanlings” so we can expand our knowledge of elephant seals while providing remarkable hands-on field experience for upcoming marine biologists. Our team includes both graduate and undergraduate students who are gaining valuable fieldwork skills that will help propel them to be the conservation leaders of tomorrow. We are raising $10,000 to hire a field leader to organize, train, and mentor undergrads and volunteers; enter data; and participate in a variety of critical research projects. Please make a donation today to help us weigh the weanlings and learn more about these amazing animals! Our matching gift of $1,000 has been met! Let's keep the support coming!
Donor Menu
$20
Thank-You Card
Handwritten thank-you card
$50
Adopt a Weanling
You will receive a photo, flipper tag information, and statistics (sex, weight, length, etc.) for your very own weanling. Then check back with us in future years to see how your weanling is doing!
$100
Name a Tracked Weanling
Name a weanling that will carry a geolocator tracking device and receive its statistics and information.
$500
Lunch with Patrick Robinson
Private science talk over lunch with Patrick Robinson, Año Nuevo Reserve Director
$1,000
Adopt an Adult Female E. Seal
Name an adult female satellite-tracked seal and receive her information (including website with daily updates).
$5,000
Private Tour with Dan Costa
Private tour of Ano Nuevo with Professor Dan Costa and Reserve Director Patrick Robinson
Give a gift of $1,000 or more and you will be able to name and track your very own elephant seal as she makes her annual migration across the Pacific.
Visit the website you will use to track your named elephant seal here!
Here is an example of what you will see - This seal is named Phyllis and she just completed the longest migration of any of our monitor elephant seals! Read about Phyllis's record breaking trip and Claudia, Sheila, and Mary's treks across the international date line!
A generous donor is helping to double our efforts by donating a matching gift of $1,000! Let's help these elephant seals!
