How many baby Southern elephant seals are in a litter?
A Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 239 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 39.45 kg (86.96 lbs) and measure 3.2 cm (0′ 2″). They are a member of the Phocidae family (genus: Mirounga). An adult Southern elephant seal grows up to a size of 3.69 meter (12′ 2″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) is one of the two species of elephant seals. It is the largest member of the clade Pinnipedia and the order Carnivora, as well as the largest extant marine mammal that is not a cetacean. It gets its name from its massive size and the large proboscis of the adult male, which is used to produce very loud roars, especially during the breeding season. A bull southern elephant seal is about 40% heavier than a male northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris), more than twice as heavy as a male walrus (Odobenus rosmarus), and 6–7 times heavier than the largest living terrestrial carnivorans, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus) and the Kodiak bear (Ursus arctos middendorffi).
Other animals of the family Phocidae
Southern elephant seal is a member of the Phocidae, as are these animals:
- Harp seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Harbor seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Caspian seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Harp seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Baikal seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Grey seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Caspian seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Caribbean monk seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Ross seal becoming 21 years old
- Crabeater seal becoming 39 years old
Animals that share a litter size with Southern elephant seal
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Sloth bear
- Rusty pipistrelle
- Mantled guereza
- Red-tailed squirrel
- Atlantic white-sided dolphin
- Killer whale
- Pig-tailed langur
- Big hairy armadillo
- Greater Asiatic yellow bat
- Mediterranean horseshoe bat
Animals that get as old as a Southern elephant seal
Other animals that usually reach the age of 23 years:
- Siberian ibex with 22.25 years
- East Caucasian tur with 22 years
- Lesser horseshoe bat with 21 years
- Gayal with 26.17 years
- Egyptian fruit bat with 22.83 years
- Grévy’s zebra with 26 years
- Mountain zebra with 24 years
- Sumatran serow with 21 years
- Common wombat with 26.08 years
- Common wallaroo with 24 years
Animals with the same weight as a Southern elephant seal
What other animals weight around 1600 kg (3527.39 lbs)?
- Strap-toothed whale usually reaching 1500 kgs (3306.93 lbs)
- Javan rhinoceros usually reaching 1740 kgs (3836.04 lbs)
- Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale usually reaching 1500 kgs (3306.93 lbs)
- False killer whale usually reaching 1360 kgs (2998.28 lbs)
- Hippopotamus usually reaching 1528.16 kgs (3369.01 lbs)
- Beluga whale usually reaching 1380.82 kgs (3044.18 lbs)
- Indian rhinoceros usually reaching 1839.1 kgs (4054.52 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Southern elephant seal
Also reaching around 3.69 meter (12′ 2″) in size do these animals:
- Indian rhinoceros gets as big as 3.74 meter (12′ 4″)
- West Indian manatee gets as big as 3.5 meter (11′ 6″)
- Northern giraffe gets as big as 4.18 meter (13′ 9″)
- White-beaked dolphin gets as big as 3.05 meter (10′ 1″)
- Beluga whale gets as big as 4.25 meter (14′ 0″)
- Leopard seal gets as big as 3.05 meter (10′ 0″)
- Javan rhinoceros gets as big as 3.1 meter (10′ 3″)
- African manatee gets as big as 3.5 meter (11′ 6″)
- Northern elephant seal gets as big as 3.72 meter (12′ 3″)
- Pygmy beaked whale gets as big as 3.72 meter (12′ 3″)