Adventures of Ranger Rick: the gang plans on taking a quiet vacation but finds a noisy surprise instead - short story

Ranger Rick, Feb, 1996 by Nora Steiner Mealy

"WOW!" said Rick. "How did that happen?"

"Because of two things," answered Elbert. "The United States and Mexico passed laws making it illegal to harm us. And," he paused, pointing to Scarlett's driftwood sign, "rangers like you saw to it that the coast is now protected. In fact, we are standing in a Nuevo State Reserve. Every year thousands of us come here to mate and raise our young."

Elbert gazed happily out at the ocean as he spoke. Suddenly he frowned. "Looks like an animal's in trouble out there," he said.

Rick, Boomer, and Scarlett looked out and, to their horror, saw an otter splashing about in the water. "It's Ollie!" Rick shouted. He turned to Elbert. "Could you help us with another friend?" he asked.

Elbert tottered across the beach and crashed into the waves. His fat body, awkward on land, moved gracefully through the water.

Before long he returned with Ollie on his back. The tired otter was breathing hard when the gang met him at the shore.

"You OK, little buddy?" asked Rick with a gentle smile. "Looks like being `Pacific Ocean Diving Champion' is a really rough job!"

"Don't remind me," groaned Ollie.

"What happened?" Scarlett asked.

"I met a fat seal with a big nose out in the water," Ollie answered. "I thought a sleek otter like me could easily beat him. So I challenged him to a diving contest."

"Then what happened?" Rick grinned, realizing that Ollie had met another northern elephant seal.

Ollie, glancing shyly at Elbert, got a good look at his "lifeguard" for the first time.

"We dove straight down and went farther than I've ever gone before," Ollie continued. "We went deeper than sunlight can reach, so it was as dark as night. Well, that was deep enough for me. I came straight back up. It seemed to take forever. But that weird seal was amazing. It didn't come up for another 15 minutes!"

Rick, Scarlett, and Boomer looked over at the busy, noisy, seal-covered beach and laughed.

"I guess we've found the real diving champions of the Pacific Ocean," Scarlett said.

Ollie covered his ears as he said, "And the noise champions too!"

RELATED ARTICLE: MORE FACTS:

When you think elephant seals, think BIG, FAR, and DEEP.

HOW BIG? A large bull like Elbert can weigh as much as 6000 pounds (2700 kg)--about as much as a truck! Next to a bull, a female (called a cow) is small. She may weigh 2000 pounds (900 kg)--about as much as a small car. A newborn baby weighs only 100 pounds (46 kg) and is about the size of a big kid.

Northern elephant seals have close cousins south of the equator. These can grow even larger than their northern relatives. Southern elephant seal bulls can be 8000 pounds (3600 kg)!

HOW FAR? Northern elephant seals really get around. Each year they migrate as far as 2000 miles (about 3000 km)--from the California coast to the waters near Alaska, and then back again.

HOW DEEP? Scientists thought their instruments were broken when they first measured how deep northern elephant seals dive! The record dive is about a mile (1500 m) down. Besides the sperm whale, no other ocean mammal can go that deep. There the elephant seals feed on deep-sea fish and squid.