What is the maximal age a Southern elephant seal reaches?
An adult Southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) usually gets as old as 23 years.
Southern elephant seals are around 239 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 39.45 kg (86.96 lbs) and measure 2.6 cm (0′ 2″). As a member of the Phocidae family (genus: Mirounga), their offspring is 1 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 3.69 meter (12′ 2″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
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).
Animals of the same family as a Southern elephant seal
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Phocidae):
- Ross seal becoming 21 years old
- Ribbon seal becoming 31 years old
- Weddell seal becoming 25 years old
- Bearded seal becoming 31.42 years old
- Caspian seal becoming 50 years old
- Ringed seal becoming 46 years old
- Harbor seal becoming 40 years old
- Northern elephant seal becoming 20.25 years old
- Caribbean monk seal with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Harp seal becoming 42 years old
Animals that reach the same age as Southern elephant seal
With an average age of 23 years, Southern elephant seal are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Common wallaroo usually reaching 24 years
- False killer whale usually reaching 22 years
- Red deer usually reaching 26.75 years
- Goodfellow’s tree-kangaroo usually reaching 21 years
- Aardvark usually reaching 24 years
- Finless porpoise usually reaching 23 years
- Greater kudu usually reaching 23 years
- Siberian ibex usually reaching 22.25 years
- Pacific white-sided dolphin usually reaching 25 years
- Egyptian fruit bat usually reaching 22.83 years
Animals with the same number of babies Southern elephant seal
The same number of babies at once (1) are born by:
- Mediterranean horseshoe bat
- Lesser mouse-tailed bat
- Western mastiff bat
- Chacma baboon
- Pale spear-nosed bat
- Sika deer
- Harp seal
- Red-necked pademelon
- Eastern hare-wallaby
- Ribboned rope squirrel
Weighting as much as Southern elephant seal
A fully grown Southern elephant seal reaches around 1600 kg (3527.39 lbs). So do these animals:
- Ginkgo-toothed beaked whale weighting 1500 kilos (3306.93 lbs) on average
- Javan rhinoceros weighting 1740 kilos (3836.04 lbs) on average
- Beluga whale weighting 1380.82 kilos (3044.18 lbs) on average
- Indian rhinoceros weighting 1839.1 kilos (4054.52 lbs) on average
- Hippopotamus weighting 1528.16 kilos (3369.01 lbs) on average
- False killer whale weighting 1360 kilos (2998.28 lbs) on average
- Strap-toothed whale weighting 1500 kilos (3306.93 lbs) on average
Animals as big as a Southern elephant seal
Those animals grow as big as a Southern elephant seal:
- Pygmy beaked whale with 3.72 meter (12′ 3″)
- Indian rhinoceros with 3.74 meter (12′ 4″)
- Javan rhinoceros with 3.1 meter (10′ 3″)
- Northern giraffe with 4.18 meter (13′ 9″)
- White-beaked dolphin with 3.05 meter (10′ 1″)
- Leopard seal with 3.05 meter (10′ 0″)
- Andrews’ beaked whale with 4.26 meter (14′ 0″)
- Beluga whale with 4.25 meter (14′ 0″)
- West Indian manatee with 3.5 meter (11′ 6″)
- African manatee with 3.5 meter (11′ 6″)