By Chen Ly.
A female elephant seal is on a beach.
Dan Costa is a man.
Every year, the northern elephant seals return to the beaches where they breed at the same time. Ecologists seem to know when to start their journeys based on how far away they are.
The northern elephant seals breed on the west coast of Canada, the US and Mexico in December and March. Female elephant seals migrate into the north-eastern Pacific Ocean to find food after they give birth. They travel 10,000 kilometres before returning to their breeding beaches to give birth.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, and her colleagues tagged and tracked elephant seals that bred on a beach in California, collecting data for 126 complete journeys.
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