Social Spacing:
The elephant seal has a home range and a mating-only territory. The elephant seal migrates farther than any other mammal, with 18,550 km the minimum annual distance of migration for the northern seal. The seal has a biannual pattern of migration, foraging in pelagic waters between breeding and molting. The tremendous distance between the location of foraging and the beaches required for giving birth, breeding, and molting precludes defending a classical territory. Further, food is relatively abundant, making defense unneccessary.
A mating-only territory is established during the breeding season on beaches. Males establish territories in order to assure access to females during postpartum estrus, which only occurs once a year. Because the females must be on the beaches for pupping, and because of the huge sex-based disparity in size, males have the opportunity to establish a territory for mating without needing to use other resources to attract females.
Predation pressure is nearly nonexistant for adults because of their large size. Sharks occasionally prey on pups.