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elephant seal bull flipping sand

Flipping Sand          "2:20pm. Every once in a while the bull grunts, opens an eye, and flips sand up onto his body. I don't know why -- maybe to keep cool or keep flies or parasites away? Perhaps to keep his skin damp? He's almost covered with sand now, and there's a big hole in the sand next to him which he has scraped out with his flipper. The calves and females are all flipping sand, too."