Q: Do you know what creature in the elephant
seal diet causes their poop to be orange?
A: Surprisingly, it's actually not from any prey item.
The seals don't eat much during the last week or two
of their migration, so most of the contents of the gut
are expelled before the seals even reach land. The
color is thought to be from the continual processing
of red blood cells throughout the fast. The red/orange
color is derived from the hemoglobin pigment. Each
red blood cell has a relatively short life, so they are
constantly being replenished... and elephant seals
have a LOT of red blood cells!
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