Robin Bush photographing a juvenile bull elephant seal at the southern tip of South East Island.

Elephant seals or sea elephants are large, oceangoing seals, taking their name from the large proboscis of the adult males (bulls) which resembles an elephant's trunk. This, the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) were hunted to the brink of extinction by the end of the 19th century, but numbers have since recovered. Elephant seals spend upwards of 80% of their lives in the ocean and they can hold their breath for more than 100 minutes while they may dive more than 1500 m beneath the ocean's surface. They occasionally haul up on southern coastlines around New Zealand.