Steller's sea cow illustration (Hydrodamalis gigas) - recently extinct sirenian
Conservation status | Extinct
Scientific classification edit > Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Mammalia > Order: Sirenia > Family: Dugongidae > Genus: Hydrodamalis > Species: H. gigas
Binomial name | Hydrodamalis gigas
Now extinct, the Steller's sea cow is often listed along with the four surviving members of the order Sirenia - West Indian...
more »Steller's sea cow illustration (Hydrodamalis gigas) - recently extinct sirenian
Conservation status | Extinct
Scientific classification edit > Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Mammalia > Order: Sirenia > Family: Dugongidae > Genus: Hydrodamalis > Species: H. gigas
Binomial name | Hydrodamalis gigas
Now extinct, the Steller's sea cow is often listed along with the four surviving members of the order Sirenia - West Indian manatees, West African manatee, Amazonian manatee, and the dugong. Discovered in 1741, it was completely wiped out by man in less than 30 years.
The Steller's sea cow was an enormous relative of the dugong that measured 8-9 meters (25-28 feet) and weighed over 4 tons (8,800 lbs). It had a small head in proportion to its body, and its midsection was large and rounded, resembling an overturned boat. Its tail was fluked and whale-like, similar to that of the modern day dugong. It subsisted primarily on kelp.
The last of this species lived in the shallow waters surrounding the Commander Islands, which lie 200 miles east of the Kamchatka Peninsula near the tip of the Aleutian Islands. Fossil records indicate that similar creatures were once widely distributed from Japan to the North Pacific coast and down to California. It is suspected that humans were the cause of their demise in all of these areas, and that the last remaining animals, perhaps numbering 1,500-2,000, had survived unnoticed in the far north until being rediscovered in 1741 by stranded Vitus Bering's expedition crews of St. Peter. German naturalist and physician Georg Wilhelm Steller, who was traveling on the ill-fated ship, St. Peter, spent much time observing the sea cow and took many valuable notes on the animal.
It was said that the sea cow meat tasted delicious, like veal, and that its almond-flavored oil helped preserve it for long periods of time. When the surviving crew of the St. Peter eventually reconstructed a boat and sailed to Kamchatka, they took with them a supply of the savory meat and enthusiastic accounts of its availability in the Commander Islands. Russian hunters and fur trappers soon headed for the islands in droves and slaughtered the sea cows indiscriminately. Often they would harpoon an animal, which would then head out to deeper waters to die. Only one in five harpooned sea cows was actually retrieved by the hunters, and of these, the hunters would often carve off a few hunks of meat and leave the rest of the carcass to rot.
In 1768, explorer Martin Sauer wrote an account of the death of the last remaining sea cow. Since then, there have been occasional unconfirmed reports of sea cow sightings in the Pacific North, one as recently as 1962. However, the likelihood of any Steller's sea cows remaining today is extremely remote.
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