lions and tigers and ELEPHANT SEALS oh my!

*you might want to double click on the photo's so you could see them better...

BeforeAfter

*do her yoga for the day...

Last week while watching the 5' o clock news, we were introduced to Shirley, the elephant seal. Apparently she has propped herself on the beach at Carmel State Park to "molt", in layman's terms, shed it's skin.

It's become a tourist attraction around our neighborhood because "Nothern" elephant seals are pretty rare in this area. The farther you head south (think: Hearst Castle area) you will see tons but in this area it's mostly sea lions, sea otters and harbor seals. They call them elephant seals because of they have "trunks" for mouths. Kinda cool..anyway back to the story. On Monday, I went to the beach to check it out and Shirley was half-way through shedding and then on Thursday, she was a brand new woman, new skin and all. She even lifted her tail in one shot...I know, complete show off. These animals are fascinating. The rangers says not to be close because they might bite but this little lady was posing for the camera (famous last words right? I say they are friendly, next thing you know my camera gets eaten by a hungry elephant seal..)

Ok kids hope you enjoyed the little piece of history happening in our area.

Cheerio

-Cori