Team Ellie: Studying the Elephant Seals
of the Central Coast
Photo by: Heather Liwanag
The northern elephant seals at Piedras Blancas (San Simeon, CA) represent the largest mainland breeding colony for the species. In collaboration with California State Parks and the Friends of the Elephant Seal, the VIP lab has initiated a long-term population monitoring program at Piedras Blancas. Our student-run team is known as Team Ellie at Cal Poly. We are studying the ecology and behavior of the animals, to lay the foundations for a greater understanding of our local population.
Graduate student Molly Murphy is using bioacoustics to understand mother-pup vocal recognition in elephant seals. Graduate student Katie Saenger is using satellite tag technology to find out where elephant seal pups go on their very first at-sea migration. Click below for a live map of their satellite tracks!
Interested in joining the team?
We recruit new students in spring for the following academic year.
You can download last year’s application at the link below.
Applications are only open to Cal Poly students.