Winter is also the best season to spot elephant seals - or as the case may be, to hear them.

Middle Island is home to small colony of elephant seals.

But the point of this particular trip, I remind myself, is to see the elephant seals.

Elephant seals can be seen today on the wildlife reserve.

Northern female elephant seals have lived to 22 years, and can give birth starting at the age of three to four.

Elephant seals are the first creatures to return to the beaches.

I could make out the sounds of grizzlies and elephant seals.

They hate going out alone, because of the elephant seals.

In the 1880/90s, hunting reduced the Northern elephant seal to only about 20 individuals.

This is the season the elephant seals come up on the beach to give birth and to mate.