How to Use elephant seal in a Sentence

elephant seal

noun
Definition of elephant sealnext
  • Here's a look at what the elephant seals and their pups are up to.
    — Mark Price, charlotteobserver, 22 Jan. 2018
  • The bull elephant seal charged into the ocean after the pup and pushed it to shore with its head, the study said.
    — Don Sweeney, Sacramento Bee, 3 Mar. 2024
  • The first time a northern elephant seal was known to be born here was only about 50 years ago.
    — Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2022
  • Also on the boat was a now-hefty northern elephant seal found off the coast of La Jolla roughly two months ago.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 July 2022
  • One pregnant elephant seal slid away to be on her own, possibly to give birth.
    — Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2022
  • The elephant seal inched toward the water and soon slipped into the Pacific.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 July 2022
  • This abundance of food draws in sea lions, harbor seals and, more rarely, elephant seals, which breed at Año Nuevo to the south.
    — Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Jan. 2018
  • Something else must have influenced the loss of this gene in the cats, brown hyena and northern elephant seal, but not in their kin.
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 29 Mar. 2011
  • Trevor McIntyre faces off against a male southern elephant seal.
    — Nala Rogers, Discover Magazine, 1 Oct. 2019
  • In total, Fedak and the crew tagged seven elephant seals found on dry beaches near Pine Island.
    — Kasha Patel, Smithsonian, 13 July 2018
  • The video shows an elephant seal that was temporarily stranded in Chile in 2020.
    — Ana Faguy, USA TODAY, 5 Oct. 2022
  • Guided walks to see the elephant seals will begin Dec. 15 and continue through March 31.
    — Patrick May, The Mercury News, 5 Sep. 2019
  • The canyon, carved out by its namesake creek, sweeps down in a green swath from the coastal mountains on the border of Santa Cruz to the beach, where colonies of giant elephant seals bask.
    — Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 30 Jan. 2020
  • The sandy beaches of the islands are also the territory of fur seals, elephant seals, and dolphins.
    — Elizabeth Gulino, House Beautiful, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Back on the island, the massive male elephant seal hasn’t finished his annual molt yet.
    — Stephen Witt, WIRED, 25 June 2019
  • The elephant seal also has much more red blood cells than these other animals.
    — Elizabeth Pennisi, Science | AAAS, 1 Nov. 2017
  • At up to 8,800 pounds, southern elephant seals weigh more than giraffes, hippos, and even rhinoceroses.
    — National Geographic, 24 Dec. 2019
  • When worn by an elephant seal, the device can monitor cyclic patterns in speed and count each surge forward as one stroke of the flippers.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2014
  • In the world of elephant seal mating, the alpha decides who gets access to the females, and who gets to be alpha is decided by a bloody fight.
    — Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, 19 Sep. 2017
  • This week, about 300 elephant seals are on the mainland peninsula just offshore at a small island.
    — Tom Stienstra, SFChronicle.com, 12 Oct. 2019
  • For humans, that means it’s prime time to see the northern elephant seal, which calls shores along the Central Coast, Peninsula and Marin home during the winter.
    — Gwendolyn Wu, San Francisco Chronicle, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Some orcas eat fish and echolocate to find their targets, while others glide silently through the water to sneak up on elephant seal pups.
    — Victoria Sayo Turner, Smithsonian Magazine, 12 July 2023
  • Spotting rare and beautiful birds is thrilling, much like seeing elephant seals or whales.
    — Nicholas Cannariato, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2020
  • Some of the elephant seals returned without tags, while others never returned at all.
    — Brian Handwerk, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Jan. 2024
  • For now, biologists must content themselves with the short snippets of film shot by the northern elephant seal.
    — Stephanie Pain, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 June 2022
  • In the early 1800s, Russian fur traders harvested blubber from elephant seals and pelts from sea lions.
    — Laura Newberry, latimes.com, 7 July 2019
  • On their initial 80-day foraging trip, the elephant seals surveyed only got an average of one hour of sleep per day.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 28 Aug. 2023
  • The virus has proven potent enough to jump from birds to mammals, striking elephant seals and other marine mammals that congregate on shore.
    — Dino Grandoni, Washington Post, 27 Feb. 2024
  • Like many new mothers, a female elephant seal puts herself on a strict diet after giving birth.
    — Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2014
  • For instance, his recent study shows that the presence of orcas scares sharks away from elephant seal colonies in the Farallon Islands, which in turn benefits seals, the great white’s main prey.
    — National Geographic, 16 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elephant seal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: