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The elephant seal
is one of the large mammals that live in the
sea and feed on meat. Such animals spend the
whole winter swimming in the seas. By the end
of August of every year, however, they hasten
on to the beach for the mating season. They
camp on the beach for several months, during
which the males choose their favorite females.
Hence, a single
alpha male may have about 30 females. Then, it
embarks on a special form of fasting called
reproduction fasting, which lasts for several
weeks. During these weeks, the fasting males
remain safeguarding the juvenile females,
whereas the old females are pregnant and they
give birth in a few days.
Enjoying
protection and care offered by the mothers,
the pups have their bodies covered with a
black woolen fur under which there is a thick
layer of fat. Thus, the young animal has to
replace this fur with a new pelt that suits
life in the water when it first goes to it.
It becomes
necessary for the animal to slough off its old
skin, separate from its mother, and commence a
stage of fasting during which it neither
drinks nor feeds. Rather, it remains lying on
the beach during the period of fasting that
lasts for whole six weeks and ends by the
coming of January. Thereupon, the time for
breaking the fast is due, and it might replace
its woolen skin with another one that suits
life in the water.
Afterwards, with
reliance on their Lord, the seals go down into
the water and begin to eat and drink
voraciously and devouringly. As a result of
this, their bodies soon fatten up and grow
bigger. That is why it is appropriate to call
them sea elephants.
This animal spends the whole winter in that
state, and when the winter is over, it
abandons marine life and takes sunbaths on the
beach. By that time, they will have reached a
state of sexual maturity, thus having the
ability to mate and reproduce, and fast and
break the fast anew.
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