Elephant seal, Buffel, returns to Cape Town beach again

Posted by David Henning on 10 March 2023

A regular visitor to the Cape, elephant seal, Buffel, has once again chosen Diaz Beach in Cape Point as his preferred moulting location.

Elephant seal cape town

Picture: Anton Crone/ Getaway Gallery

Buffel has garnered quite the cult following since making landfall in South Africa for the first time in 2016, returning to the shore on Duiker Island, Fish Hoek Beach, and Diaz Beach in Cape Point Nature Reserve.

He had been photographed from the air by marine biologist, Jean Tresfon, in the first week of March.

Buffel moulting on Diaz Beach recently.

All elephant seals moult annually when they shed their sheets of cornified skin and hair. In Elephant seals – along with penguins – this kind of moulting is called a “catastrophic moult” because they replace all their hair while fasting on land. With Elephant seals, this process can take up to a month.

But Buffel is not alone in choosing South Africa. In February an elephant seal came ashore in the Bonza Bay area, weighing in at a whopping 1 800 kg.

The East London Aquarium and Museum staff have assessed him and assume that he may have come out to moult., and seems to be in good health.

These mammals have been making landfall in South Africa throughout history, where in 1953, an elephant seal was spotted on the shores for the first time with a young cow suckling it, and their sightings have been well documented along the coast.

A picture of an elephant seal moulting near Hermanus in 1969. Picture: Peter B Best/ Sabinet

The public is encouraged to keep their distance from both of the seals, which are protected under the Seabird and Seals Act so please do not go closer than 35m to them.

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