The Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is an extinct herbivorous marine mammal of the North Pacific Ocean.
It was the largest member of the order Sirenia, which includes its closest living relative, the dugong (Dugong dugon), and the manatees (Trichechus spp.).
Although the Steller's sea cow had formerly been abundant throughout the North Pacific, by the mid 1700s, its range had been limited to a single, isolated population surrounding the uninhabited Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.
The Steller's sea cow reached up to 9 meters (30 ft) in length, making it among the largest mammals other than whales to have existed in the Holocene epoch.
Weight value is estimated to lie between these figures, at around 5,000 to 10,000 kg (11,000 to 22,000 lb).
Its head was small and short compared to the huge body. Like other sirenians, the Steller's sea cow was an obligate herbivore, and kelp was most likely their main food source.
Steller's sea cow was discovered in 1741 by Georg Wilhelm Steller, and was named after him. Steller researched the wildlife of Bering Island while he was shipwrecked there for about a year.
Unlike other sirenians, the Steller's sea cow was positively buoyant, meaning they could not completely submerge.
They had a thick epidermis to prevent injury from abrasions on sharp rocks and ice, and possibly to prevent the skin that was not submerged from drying out.
Whether or not Steller's sea cows had any predators is unknown. They may have been hunted by killer whales and sharks.
The Steller's sea cow was quickly wiped out by the sailors, seal hunters, and fur traders who followed Vitus Bering's route past the islands to Alaska.
It was hunted for its meat, skin, and fat by fur traders, and was also hunted by aboriginals of the North Pacific coast.
Its valuable subcutaneous fat was not only used for food but also for oil lamps because it did not give off any smoke or odor and could be kept for a long time in warm weather without spoiling.
By 1768, 27 years after it had been discovered by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily captured Steller's sea cow was hunted to extinction.
In November 2017, skeleton of a Steller’s sea cow was discovered on a Siberian beach at Komandorsky Nature Reserve. This rare find was made even more special, due to the skeleton’s near completeness.
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