FORKS — The Olympic Natural Resources Center will present a program on the northern elephant seal today.
The talk by Rob Wamstad will be at 7 p.m. in the Hemlock Forest Room at the center at 1455 S. Forks Ave.
It is part of a series of Evening Talks at the center.
Refreshments will be served, and visitors are encouraged to bring potluck items.
Wamstad was a docent naturalist for 12 years at Año Nuevo State Park, an elephant seal colony near San Francisco.
He led groups into the colony during breeding season and has over 1,000 hours observing the animals and their interactions.
Wamstad also volunteered for three years at Point Reyes National Seashore, informing visitors about elephant seals and gray whales.
He was an education docent, leading tours at a marine mammal hospital, and has cared for harbor seal pups.
Here is a taste of his presentation:
“As we approach the colony over the sand dunes, all may appear calm and even sleepy. There is a certain tension in the air around the harems. Bulls are eyeing and tracking bulls in this alpha male society.
“Most noticeable are six types of male behavior — Alpha, Beta, Stocker, Picket, Juvenile and Don’t Care/Past Caring.”
So begins a guided walk into an elephant seal colony.
The journey includes a discussion of the life cycles of the animals, as well as their unusual characteristics and why they are important to current research.
Since the late 1800s, whalers had reduced their number to possibly less than 100 animals at Guadalupe Island off the coast of Mexico.
The northern elephant seal has rebounded to slowly building colonies northward, with a recent colony reported on Vancouver Island.
Evening Talks are supported by the Rosmond Forestry Education Fund, an endowment that honors the contributions of Fred Rosmond and his family to forestry, education and the Forks community.
For more information, contact Frank Hanson at 360-374-4556 or fsh2@uw.edu.
