Home > Steller's Sea Cow

The sea cow grew up to 35 feet long (10.7 meters) and weighed up to three-and-a-half tons, much larger than the manateeTrichechus inunguis ''Trichechus manatus ''Trichechus senegalensis Manatees ( family Trichechidae genus Trichechus are large aquatic mammals sometimes known as sea cows . The Trichechidae differ from the Dugongidae in the shape of the skull and the shape or dugongThe Dugong Dugong dugon is the smallest member of the order Sirenia (which also includes the manatees and Steller's Sea Cow). Adults are generally less than 3 meters long. Although they once covered all of the tropical South Pacific and Indian Oceans, rem. It looked somewhat like a large seal, but had two stout forelimbs and a whale-like tail. According to Steller, "The animal never comes out on shore, but always lives in the water. Its skin is black and thick, like the bark of an old oak..., its head in proportion to the body is small..., it has no teeth, but only two flat white bones—one above, the other below." They fed on a variety of kelp. Wherever sea cows had been feeding, heaps of stalks and roots of kelp were washed ashore.

The population of sea cows was small in number and limited in range when Steller first described them. They were wiped out quickly by the sailors, seal hunters, and fur traders that followed Bering's route past the islands to AlaskaOn January 3, 1959, Alaska was admitted to the United States as the 49th state. The population of the state is 626,932, as of 2000. The name "Alaska" is most likely derived from the Aleut word for "great country" or "mainland. The natives called it "Alyes, who hunted them both for food and for their skins, which were used to make boats. By 1768, less than 30 years after it had been discovered, Steller's Sea Cow was extinct.

There are still sporadic reports of sea cow-like animals from the Bering area, however, so it has been suggested that small populations of the animal may have survived to the present day. This remains so far unproven.