NOBODY likes a bad winner - but who would tell this massive elephant seal seemingly chuckling in the surf after securing a harem of females.  The battle-scarred giant even seems to smirk as he cosies up to one of his mates while still in sight of his randy rivals.  Wildlife photographer Justin Hofman captured this 'laughing' bull - and its battles - at Gold Harbour on South Georgia in the Antarctic Peninsula. He said: "They're always making some funny noise. So to have a laughing elephant seal makes sense - they really do make ridiculous noises." Justin, from California, spent hours photographing the large male guarding his 30-strong harem of females from rivals - including two smaller males working as a team. He said one would distract the bull in a vicious fight while the other would sneak in and mate with a female on the periphery of the harem - which can be 100-strong. However, with some elephant seals reaching 15ft in length and weighing 10,000lb, fights are no laughing matter and 'always end in bloodshed'. Justin said: "When they rear up to bash each other, they lift about two-thirds of their body straight up making them stand almost 3m high. "They slam down onto each other with massive force and their weight, combined with very sturdy teeth, imparts damage nearly every time. "It's not uncommon to walk around a beach and see scores of males with blood running down their face and chest." The wildlife photographer, from California, was able to capture these close-ups because many of the males were too tired from fighting to charge him. He said: "When they're not fighting, you can pretty much stand within arm's length of them, just sitting there watching them breathe, looking at their scars and being awed by their size. "But when they get up and start to bellow, you know it's time to step back." Elephant seals spend most of their lives at sea and only return to land to mate. They were almost hunted to extinction in the 19th and 20th centuries. Since then the population is estimated to have recovered to about 700,000 members.