Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Male elephant seals repeat their names
Elephant seals get their name from the males' very long noses, which look like a trunk. Even if these animals are credited with language, some have much more to say than others, and a male has a single word that he repeats over and over for his entire life.
A colony centers on an alpha male and a harem of females. The beta males, called sneakers, circle around the harem. When the alpha isn't looking, a sneaker tucks his nose in to pass as a female and gets in amongst the females.
Then he slides up to one of them, puts a flipper out, and repeats his own name in her ear.
Why would a male mimic a female?
Among northern elephant seals, a few dominant males control access to most of the females, so most males never get to mate. That puts strong pressure on the rest to find another way in, and disguise is one of them. Studies led by the biologist Burney Le Boeuf on the beaches at Ano Nuevo in California found that a small fraction of males fathered most of the pups in a season.
How do males use that big nose?
When males fight for status, they rear up and bellow, and the inflatable nose hangs over the mouth and acts as a resonating chamber. It lowers the pitch and makes the roar louder. Males also grow a thick, scarred skin on the chest as protection in these fights. A northern elephant seal male can weigh around two tonnes, several times as much as a female.
More from The Rest Is Science
