Elephant Seals: Mountains of Blubber

Book excerpt: Elephant seals are huge animals that live part of their life on land. When I say they are huge, I mean huge. The male elephant seal can grow to be up to 16 feet (4.9 metres) long. They can weigh 6,600 pounds (3000 kilograms)! An average car weighs about 3,000 pounds (1360 kilograms). That means a male elephant seal can weigh more than two cars! That is big! Female elephant seals are only about half the size of the males. That is still a very big seal, though. Female elephant seals can be up to about 10 feet (three metres) long and weigh about 2,000 pounds (910 kilograms) Find out more about this amazing animal and learn the answers to these questions: How long does an elephant seal stay in the water? How deep can an elephant seal dive? In what way do male elephant seals dive differently from female elephant seals? Why do elephant seals like to hang out in very deep water? In March or April elephant seals wake up to find that their mother is gone. Where did she go? Learn what an elephant seal looks like, where it lives, what it eats, what eats it, how babies are born, and other fun facts. Ages 7 - 10 Reading Level 3.7 All measurements in American and metric. LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices to read, from classic stories, to mysteries, to books of knowledge. Many books are appropriate for hi-lo readers. Open the world of reading to a child by having them read for 15 minutes a day.