Elephant seals or sea elephants are very large, oceangoing earless seals. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oil by the end of the 19th century, but their numbers have since recovered. They are the largest extant carnivorans, weighing up to 5,000 kilograms. Despite their name, elephant seals are not closely related to elephants, and the large proboscis or trunk that males have was convergently evolved.
The southern elephant seal is found in the Southern Hemisphere on islands such as South Georgia and Macquarie Island, and on the coasts of New Zealand, Tasmania, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina.