Steller's sea cow is a herbivorous giant of the sea. Destroyed by man... Steller's cow Are sea cows extinct?

What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “extinct animals”? Surely the first one is dinosaurs. But, unfortunately, there are many species that were destroyed by humans not so long ago. One of these was sea ​​cow.

Sea (Steller's) cow or cabbage cow

herbivore mammal, which is characterized by an aquatic lifestyle. Hydrodamalis gigas belongs to the order of sirens. They are also called Steller's cow, or also cabbageweed.

The genus consists of only two species: Hydrodamalis Cuesta and Steller's cow. The first - hydrodamalis - according to scientists, is the ancestor of the second.

Hydrodamalis Cuesta

Hydrodamalis Cuesta was discovered and described in 1978, thanks to the remains found in California. It is believed that this type went extinct about 2 million years ago. The exact reasons are not known, but, most likely, their disappearance provoked a cold snap and the beginning ice age, which changed the habitat and reduced the food supply.

However, it is likely that it was the extinction of Hydrodamalis that contributed to the appearance of Steller's cows.

Their habitat is considered to be the northern part Pacific Ocean, since the animals preferred calm waters.

There they were provided plant foods V the right amount. And given the size of the animals, a lot of it was required.

Steller's cow is a calm and peaceful animal. By the way, it was for their way of life and peaceful disposition that they got their name: an analogy with their land namesakes.

In the name “sea, or Steller’s, cow,” the first word is a generic designation, the second is a specific one. Sometimes this species is called “cabbage”, based on the type of food.

History of discovery

Sea cows were first spotted in 1741.

The ship "St. Peter" under the command of Vitus Bering was wrecked while on an expedition.

This happened while trying to anchor off the island, which was later named after Bering. On the ship was the expedition's naturalist and doctor, Georg Steller.

At that time he was the only person with a natural science education. It was he who saw and described this species in detail.

After the shipwreck, while on the shore, he noticed several large oblong objects in the sea.

From a distance, Steller mistook them for the bottoms of capsized boats. However, he then realized that they were the backs of large aquatic animals.

Using the example of a female cabbage plant, Steller drew up sketches and observations on nutrition and lifestyle.

The first sea cow was caught precisely on this expedition, but not immediately, but only after ten months of their stay on the island - 6 weeks before departure.

It is possible that it was the meat of this animal that helped and saved travelers during the construction of a new ship.

Later reports by other scientists, one way or another, are based on the work of G. Steller “On the Beasts of the Sea.”

The German zoologist, E. Zimmermann, in 1780 described the sea cow as the new kind.

A. J. Retzius, a Swedish biologist, in 1794 gave the binomial name, which became generally accepted - Hydrodamalis gigas. Literally means “water cow”.

Appearance

The body dimensions of Steller cows were large: length - 7-10 meters, weight - 4-10 tons. The massive body was spindle-shaped, and against its background the head looked small. However, she was mobile.

The limbs are short with rounded ends: they resemble flippers. The hands were reduced, since the phalanges of the fingers mostly atrophied. The front paws had a horny growth similar to a hoof.

This structure helped sea cows move along the bottom, cutting off algae.

The body ended in a tail with a two-lobed fin, like that of cetaceans.

Surprisingly, the clumsy Steller's cows could move very quickly, if necessary, using vertical swings of their tail.

The lips of marine herbivores were soft and mobile. They were covered with so-called vibrissae, which were as thick as the shaft of a chicken feather.

The upper lip was not bifurcated. The sea cow had no teeth. But this did not stop them from absorbing food in huge quantities. Using two horny plates, they ground food.

The tiny ear openings were small and inconspicuous among the folds of dense skin.

According to G. Steller, cabbage plants had skin as thick as oak bark. Later studies made it possible to establish that the body cover of cows resembled modern rubber. Surely, such skin performed a protective function.

The eyes were also small - no larger than those of a sheep, according to some eyewitnesses.

An interesting but unclear fact remains sexual dimorphism in sea cows. Most likely, males were slightly larger than females.

The animals did not make sound signals. They could only snort, exhaling air, or groan, being wounded. A developed inner ear indicates excellent hearing. But, according to available information, marine herbivores did not react to the noise of approaching boats.

Behavior

Sedentary and clumsy animals most spent their lives eating food.

They swam slowly and preferred shallow water to be able to rest on the ground with the help of their large fins.

Research by scientists has shown that Steller's cows were monogamous, living in families in large herds.

The diet consisted of coastal algae and seaweed. The life expectancy of cows was high - about 90 years. This is due to the fact that herbivores had no natural enemies.

Steller in his work indicated that the causes of death could only be the winter period, when cows found themselves under ice, or strong storms, during which animals hit rocks.

Zoologists believe that the docile nature of sea cows could allow them to be tamed and become the first aquatic pets.

Hunting for cabbages

Of course, the main reason for the extinction of Steller cows as a species is humans.

By hunting them, people destroyed beautiful animals.

The main reason for hunting is to obtain meat.

Even during Bering's expedition, people noticed that up to 3 tons of meat can be obtained from one individual.

This amount was enough to feed more than 30 people for a whole month.

The rendered fat from the subcutaneous fat of sea animals was used for lighting: poured into a lamp, it burned without smell or soot.

Cabbage skin, strong and thick, was used in the manufacture of boats.

Related species

Despite the fact that sea cows are considered completely extinct, there is related species, which, according to scientists, is as close as possible to them. This is a dugong.

Both species belong to the same family, but the dugong is the only modern representative on this moment.

The dugong is smaller in size: body length – up to 6 m, weight – up to 600 kg, skin thickness – about 3 cm.

The largest population of dugongs - 10 thousand individuals - lives in the Torres Strait and off the coast of the Great Barrier Reef.

Surely, you will not be surprised by the fact that the dugong is now listed in the Red Book as a vulnerable species.

Man does not miss the opportunity to turn this wonderful animal into a commercial object, since it has a structure and lifestyle similar to sea cows.

Steller's cow is an extinct animal

Officially, the cabbage weed is considered an extinct animal, listed in the Black Book due to active extermination.

At the time when the species was just discovered, it already had a small population. According to some reports, the number of cabbage ducks at the time of discovery was about 3 thousand individuals.

Considering these circumstances, permissible norm slaughter was supposed to be 15 individuals per year. But in reality this figure was exceeded 10 times.

As a result, in 1768, the last representatives of this species disappeared from the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, sea cows themselves made things easier for people. The fact is that they did not know how to dive, moved little and were not afraid of people.

From time to time, of course, there are reports that Steller's cows have been spotted in some remote corners of the ocean. But, nevertheless, scientists will answer the question “is the sea cow extinct” in the affirmative, since there is not a single piece of evidence to the contrary.

Of course, enthusiasts and some cryptozoologists believe that a small population currently exists. They even suggested their habitat: remote areas Kamchatka region. But this information has not been confirmed.

And recently information has appeared that it is possible to clone the cabbage plant using biological material obtained from discovered samples of skin and bones.

Hydrodamalis gigas) is a mammal of the sirenian order exterminated by humans. Discovered in 1741 by the expedition of Vitus Bering. Russian name received in honor of the naturalist Georg Steller, the expedition doctor, on whose descriptions much of the information about this animal is based.

Steller's cow lived only off the coast of the Commander Islands, although modern paleontological data indicate that in prehistoric times its range was noticeably wider. The predatory extermination that followed the discovery for the sake of delicious meat led to the complete disappearance of this animal by 1768.

Steller's cow was a very large animal. In terms of length and body mass, she probably surpassed everyone else aquatic mammals, except for cetaceans (reaching 7-8 m in length, five or more tons of weight) and its closest relative and probable ancestor - Hydrodamalis Cuesta (body length more than 9 m with a probable weight of up to 10 tons). Cabbageweed led a sedentary lifestyle, staying mostly near the shore; apparently she was not capable of diving. The Steller's cow fed exclusively on seaweed, primarily seaweed. The behavior of this animal was characterized by slowness, apathy and lack of fear of humans. These factors, which made it easier for people to harvest cows, contributed to its rapid disappearance. The low total number of cows at the time of opening also played a role - about two thousand.

Occasional reports of sightings of sea cows in a number of areas of the Kamchatka Territory have not been confirmed. Museums around the world preserve a significant number of skeletal remains of cabbage fish, including several complete skeletons, as well as pieces of their skin.

History of discovery

Sketch of a female Steller's cow, described and measured by G. Steller. Considered to be the only depiction of a cow made from life

People first saw sea cows in November 1741 (except for hypothetical contacts with them by the prehistoric inhabitants of Asia and North America and/or later aboriginal tribes of Siberia), when the ship of Commander Vitus Bering "St. Peter", making an expeditionary voyage, was wrecked at attempt to anchor off the island, later named after Bering.

Georg Steller, the expedition's naturalist and doctor, was the only specialist with a natural science background who personally saw and described this species. After the shipwreck, he noticed from the shore in the sea several large oblong objects, similar from a distance to the bottoms of overturned boats, and soon realized that he had seen the backs of large aquatic animals. However, the first cow was obtained by the people from this expedition only at the end of their ten-month stay on the island, six weeks before departure. Eating the meat of sea cows greatly helped travelers, maintaining their strength during the labor-intensive construction of a new ship.

Most of the later accounts are based on Steller's De bestiis marinis, first published in 1751. Steller believed that he was dealing with a manatee (lat. Trichechus manatus), and in his notes he identified the sea cow with it, claiming that this is the same animal that in the Spanish possessions in America is called “manat” (Spanish. manati) . The famous German zoologist E. Zimmermann described the sea cow as a new species in 1780. The now generally accepted binomial name Hydrodamalis gigas(the generic name literally means “water cow,” the specific name means “giant”) was given to the species by the Swedish biologist A. J. Retzius in 1794.

An important contribution to the study of the sea cow was made by an American zoologist of Norwegian origin, Steller biographer Leonard Steineger, who conducted research on the Commanders in 1882-1883 and collected a large number of bones of this animal.

Appearance and structure

Appearance and structural features

Steller's cow skull

The appearance of the cabbage cow was characteristic of all sirens, with the exception that the Steller's cow was much larger than its relatives in size. The animal's body was thick and ridged. The head was very small in comparison with the size of the body, and the cow could freely move its head both to the sides and up and down. The limbs were relatively short, rounded flippers with a joint in the middle, ending in a horny growth, which was compared to a horse's hoof. The body ended in a wide horizontal tail blade with a notch in the middle.

The skin of the Steller cow was bare, folded and extremely thick and, as Steller put it, resembled the bark of an old oak tree. Its color ranged from gray to dark brown, sometimes with whitish spots and stripes. One of the German researchers who studied a preserved piece of Steller cow leather found that in terms of strength and elasticity it is close to the rubber of modern car tires. Perhaps this property of the skin was a protective device that saved the animal from injury from stones in the coastal zone.

The ear openings were so small that they were almost lost among the folds of skin. The eyes were also very small, according to eyewitness descriptions - no larger than those of a sheep. The soft and mobile lips were covered with vibrissae as thick as the shaft of a chicken feather. The upper lip was not bifurcated. The Steller cow had no teeth at all. The cabbage grass ground its food using two horny plates white(one on each jaw). There were, according to various sources, 6 or 7 cervical vertebrae. Judging by the skeletons found, there were about 50 vertebrae in the spine (not counting the thoracic one).

The presence of pronounced sexual dimorphism in the Steller cow remains unclear. However, males were apparently somewhat larger than females.

Steller's cow made virtually no sound signals. She usually only snorted, exhaling air, and only when wounded could she make loud moaning sounds. Apparently, this animal had good hearing, as evidenced by significant development inner ear. However, the cows almost did not react at all to the noise of the boats approaching them.

Size

Steller's cow was a very large animal. Steller himself, who described the female cow in detail, estimated her body length at 295 inches (about 7.5 m). The longest documented length of a sea cow is 7.88 m. The female, 7.42 m long, had a neck and nape circumference of 204 cm, a body circumference at shoulder level of 3.67 m, and a largest body circumference in the middle at the back of the belly of 6.22 m. , the length of the tail from the anus to the caudal lobes is 192.5 cm, the circumference of the caudal peduncle at the point where the lobes originate is 143 cm, the distance between the ends of the caudal lobes is 199 cm. It has been suggested that the length of sea cows could be noticeably greater, but some scientists believe that 7.9 m was already the upper limit; however, a length of 9-10 m is also called. The girth of the female, measured by Steller, was 22 feet (6.6 m).

As for the body weight, it was very significant - on the order of several tons. Different sources give varying figures: about 4 tons, 4.5-5.9 tons, up to 10 tons or from 5.4 to 11.2 tons, that is, Steller's cow could be even heavier than the African elephant. The weight of the female, measured by Steller, was about 3.5 tons. In any case, Steller's cow was apparently in first place by weight among all mammals that led an aquatic lifestyle, with the exception of cetaceans (exceeding in average weight even such a giant as the southern elephant seal).

Features of behavior

Most of the time, Steller's cows fed by swimming slowly in shallow water, often using their forelimbs to support themselves on the ground. They did not dive, and their backs constantly stuck out of the water. Seabirds often sat on the backs of cows and pecked crustaceans (whale lice) attached there from the folds of their skin. The cows came so close to the shore that sometimes you could reach them with your hands. Usually the female and the male kept together with the young of the year and the young of the previous year, but in general the cows usually kept in large herds. In the herd, the young animals were in the middle. The animals' attachment to each other was very strong. Described as a male during three days swam to a dead female lying on the shore. The cub of another female, slaughtered by industrialists, behaved in the same way. Little is known about the reproduction of cabbage weeds. Steller wrote that sea cows are monogamous, mating apparently occurred in the spring.

Steller's cows fed exclusively on seaweed, which grew in abundance in coastal waters, primarily seaweed (which is where the name “cabbage” came from). Feeding cows kept their heads under water while plucking algae. Every 4-5 minutes they raised their heads for a new portion of air, making a sound somewhat reminiscent of a horse snorting. In places where cows fed, the waves washed ashore in large quantities the lower parts of the thalli (“roots” and “stems”) of the algae they ate, as well as droppings similar to horse manure. When resting, the cows lay on their backs, drifting slowly in the quiet bays. In general, the behavior of the cabbage girls was characterized by exceptional slowness and apathy. In winter, the cows lost so much weight that an observer could count their ribs.

Artist's impression of Steller's cows grazing

The lifespan of the Steller's cow, like its closest relative the dugong, could reach ninety years. Natural enemies This animal has not been described, but Steller spoke of cases of cows dying under the ice in winter. He also said that during a storm, cabbages, if they did not have time to move away from the shore, often died from being hit by rocks in strong waves.

Status of livestock at the time of opening

Area

According to some studies, the range of the Steller's cow expanded significantly during the peak of the last glaciation (about 20 thousand years ago), when the Arctic Ocean was separated from the Pacific by land located on the site of the modern Bering Strait - the so-called Beringia. The climate in the northwestern Pacific Ocean was milder than today, which allowed the Steller's cow to spread far north along the coast of Asia.

Fossil finds dating back to the late Pleistocene confirm the fact that sirenids were widespread in this geographical area. The presence of the Steller's cow in a limited range near the Commander Islands dates back to the onset of the Holocene. Researchers do not rule out that in other places the cow disappeared back in prehistoric time due to persecution by local hunting tribes. However, some American researchers believed that the cow's range could have shrunk without the participation of primitive hunters. In their opinion, by the time of its discovery, Steller's cow was already on the verge of extinction due to natural causes.

Data provided by specialists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) claim that Steller's cow in the 18th century most likely also lived in the western Aleutian Islands, although Soviet sources are more early years pointed out that data on the presence of cows in places outside their known range are based only on finds of their carcasses thrown up at sea. In the 1960s and 70s, individual bones of the Steller's cow were also found in Japan and California. The only known discovery of relatively complete skeletons of cabbage grass outside its known range was made in 1969 on the island of Amchitka (Aleutian ridge); The age of the three skeletons found there was estimated at 125-130 thousand years. In 1971, information appeared about the discovery of the left rib of a sea cow during excavations of a 17th-century Eskimo camp in Alaska in the Noatak River basin. It was concluded that during the late Pleistocene, Steller's cow was widespread in the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan coast while the climate in the area was warm enough. It is noteworthy that the cow, whose skeleton was found on the island of Amchitka, despite its young age, was not inferior in size to adult specimens from the Commander Islands.

Ecological connections of Steller's cow

The role of the Steller's cow in the ecological balance was significant, primarily due to the consumption of significant amounts of algae by this animal. In places where sea cows ate algae, the number of sea urchins, which form the basis of the diet of sea otters, increased. It is possible that due to the decrease in the amount of algae, underwater hunting for Steller's cormorant fish was also facilitated (therefore, it is possible that the disappearance of the Steller's cormorant was indirectly one of the main reasons for the extinction of this bird). It is noted that the prehistoric range of the Steller's cow coincided with the range of the sea otter. In general, experts believe that ecological interconnection Steller's cow and sea otter was significant. The extermination of sea otters near Komandor by industrialists could have become an additional factor in the extinction of cabbage birds.

When the sea cows disappeared, large algae formed continuous thickets in the coastal strip of the Commander Islands. The result of this was the stagnation of coastal waters, their rapid “blooming” and the so-called red tides, named because of the red color of the water due to the intensive reproduction of unicellular dinoflagellate algae. Toxins (some of which stronger than poison curare), produced by certain species of dinoflagellates, can accumulate in the body of mollusks and other invertebrate animals, along the trophic chain reaching fish, sea otters and seabirds, and lead to their death.

Relationship with other sirenids

Steller's cow - typical representative sirens. Its earliest known ancestor appears to have been a dugong-like Miocene sea cow. Dusisiren Jordani, whose fossil remains have been described in California. A study of mitochondrial DNA showed that the evolutionary divergence of sea cows and dugongs occurred no later than 22 million years ago. The sea cow can be considered the direct ancestor of the cabbageweed Hydrodamalis cuestae, lived in the late Miocene, about 5 million years ago.

The closest living relative of the Steller's cow is most likely the dugong. Steller's cow is classified in the same family as dugongs, but it stands out in separate genus Hydrodamalis.

Extermination

Slaughter of Steller cows by humans

Industrialists who hunted sea otters there and researchers who arrived on the Commander Islands hunted Steller cows for their meat. The slaughter of cabbages was a simple matter - these lethargic and sedentary animals, unable to dive, could not escape from the people chasing them on boats. The harpooned cow, however, often showed such fury and strength that the hunters tried to swim away from it. According to Steller,

The usual method of catching Steller's cows was by hand harpooning. Sometimes they were killed using firearms. The method of catching Steller cows was described in great detail by Steller:

We caught them using a large iron hook, the tip of which resembled the claw of an anchor; We attached its other end with an iron ring to a very long and strong rope, which was dragged from the shore by thirty people... Having harpooned a sea cow, the sailors tried to immediately swim to the side so that the wounded animal would not capsize or break their boat with blows of its powerful tail . After this, the people who remained on the shore began to pull the rope and persistently drag the desperately resisting animal to the shore. The people in the boat, meanwhile, urged the animal on with the help of another rope and exhausted it with constant blows until it, exhausted and completely motionless, was pulled ashore, where it was already struck with bayonets, knives and other weapons. Sometimes large pieces were cut off from a living animal and she, resisting, hit the ground with such force with her tail and fins that pieces of skin even fell off from the body... From the wounds inflicted in the back of the body, blood flowed in a stream. When the wounded animal was under water, the blood did not gush out, but as soon as he stuck his head out to grab a breath of air, the blood flow resumed with the same force...

With this method of fishing, only a part of the cows fell into the hands of people, the rest died at sea from wounds - according to some estimates, the hunters received only one out of five harpooned cabbages.

From 1743 to 1763, several parties of fur industrialists with a total number of up to fifty people wintered on the Commander Islands. They all hunted sea cows for meat. By 1754, sea cows were completely exterminated from Copper Island. It is believed that the last cow off Bering Island was killed by an industrialist named Popov in 1768. In the same year, researcher Martin Sauer made a note in his journal about their complete absence from this island.

There is information that one of the members of the Bering expedition, a certain Yakovlev, claimed that in 1755 the leadership of the settlement on the island. Bering issued a decree banning the hunting of sea cows. However, by that time, the local population had apparently already been destroyed almost entirely.

Eating

The main purpose of hunting the Steller's cow was to obtain meat. One of the participants in Bering's expedition said that up to three tons of meat could be obtained from a slaughtered cow. It is known that the meat of one cow was enough to feed thirty three people within a month. Slaughtered cows were consumed not only by wintering parties, they were also usually taken with them as provisions by sailing ships. The meat of sea cows was, according to reviews of those who tried it, of excellent taste. Steller wrote:

The fat is not oily, but harsh, white as snow; if it sits in the sun for several days, it becomes pleasantly yellow, like the best Dutch oil. Rendered, it tastes superior to the best beef fat; ...extremely pleasant in smell and very nutritious, so we drank cups of it without experiencing any disgust. The tail consists almost exclusively of fat. The meat of cubs resembles a pig, the meat of adults resembles veal; it cooks for half an hour and at the same time swells so much that it almost doubles in volume. The meat of old animals is indistinguishable from beef... We soon experienced how beneficial it is for nutrition, especially those who suffered from the effects of scurvy.

The insides of the Steller cow (heart, liver, kidneys) were not good taste qualities, were tough and, as Steller wrote, usually thrown away. The fat rendered from subcutaneous fat was not only used for food, but was also used for lighting. Poured into a lamp, it burned without smell or soot. The strong and thick skin of cabbage fish was used to make boats.

Preserved skeletons and bones

The skeletal remains of Steller cows have been studied quite fully. Their bones are not rare, since people still come across them on the Commander Islands. Museums around the world contain a significant number of bones and skeletons of this animal - according to some data, fifty-nine museums around the world have such exhibits. Several remains of a sea cow skin are also preserved. Steller's cow replicas, reconstructed with a high degree of accuracy, are available in many museums. Among this number of exhibits are several well-preserved skeletons:

Samples were taken from bones stored in museums to sequence the genome of Steller's cow.

Former USSR

• Zoological Museum of Moscow University - skeleton collected in 1837.
• in St. Petersburg - an incomplete skeleton of an individual 6.87 m long (found in 1855).
• Paleontological Museum in Kyiv - complete skeleton (-1882).
• Zoological Museum at the National Scientific and Natural History Museum of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv - complete skeleton (1879-1882).
• Khabarovsk Museum of Local Lore - an almost complete skeleton of one individual, to which several bones of another specimen were added (1897-1898).
• Kharkov Museum of Nature - complete composite skeleton (1879-1882, some elements added in the 1970s).
• Zoological Museum named after Benedict Dybovsky in Lviv - complete skeleton (1879-1882).
• Aleutian Museum of Local Lore in the village of Nikolskoye on Bering Island - an almost complete skeleton of a cub (discovered in 1986).
• Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore - two incomplete skeletons, totaling fifty-six bones (1879).

USA

• Washington, National Museum of Natural History - composite skeleton. Collected in 1883 by Steineger.
• University of California at Berkeley - almost complete skeleton, composed of bones from several individuals (acquired 1904).
• Museum of Comparative Zoology (part of the Harvard Museum of Natural History at Harvard University in Massachusetts - almost complete composite skeleton (probably from bones collected by Steineger).

Europe

• London Natural History Museum - complete skeleton, composed of the bones of two individuals (acquired in 1882).
• Edinburgh Museum - almost complete composite skeleton (found on Medny Island by Russian scientist D.F. Sinitsyn, brought to Great Britain in 1897).
• National Museum of Natural History in Paris - two almost complete composite skeletons (acquired 1898).
• Natural History Museum Vienna - almost complete composite skeleton (1897).
• The Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm - an incomplete skeleton (from bones collected in 1879 by the expedition of A. Nordenskiöld on the barque Vega).
• Natural History Museum at the University of Helsinki - complete skeleton of a young individual, 5.3 m long, who died of natural causes. Compiled from bones collected in 1861 by the Chief Ruler of the Russian-American Company (in fact, the governor of Russian Alaska) I. V. Furugelm.

Possibility of preservation to this day

Steller's cow is considered extinct; the status of its population according to the International Red Book is extinct species (English: Extinct). However, it is sometimes believed that for some time after the 1760s, sea cows were occasionally encountered by the natives of the Russian Far East. Thus, in 1834, two Russian-Aleutian Creoles claimed that on the coast of Bering Island they saw “a skinny animal with a cone-shaped body, small forelimbs, which breathed with its mouth and had no rear fins.” Such reports, according to some researchers, were quite frequent in the 19th century.

Several pieces of evidence that remain unconfirmed even date back to the 20th century. In 1962, members of a Soviet whaler's crew allegedly observed a group of six animals in the Gulf of Anadyr, the description of which was similar to the appearance of a Steller's cow. In 1966, a note about the observation of cabbage grass was published in the newspaper Kamchatsky Komsomolets. In 1976, the editors of the magazine “Around the World” received a letter from Kamchatka meteorologist Yu. V. Koev, who said that he saw cabbage grass at Cape Lopatka:

I can say that in August 1976, in the area of ​​Cape Lopatka, I saw a Steller’s cow. What allows me to make such a statement? I saw whales, killer whales, seals, sea lions, fur seals, sea otters and walruses more than once. This animal is not like any of the above. Length about five meters. It swam very slowly in shallow water. It seemed to roll like a wave. First, the head with a characteristic growth appeared, then the massive body and then the tail. Yes, yes, that’s what attracted my attention (by the way, there is a witness). Because when a seal or a walrus swims like this, their hind legs are pressed together, and you can see that these are flippers, and this one had a tail like a whale’s. It seems... that every time she surfaced with her stomach up, slowly rolling her body. And she put her tail like a whale’s “butterfly” when the whale goes into the depths...

None of these observations have been confirmed. However, some enthusiasts and cryptozoologists even now consider it probable that a small population of Steller cows exists in remote and inaccessible areas of the Kamchatka Territory. There is a debate among hobbyists about the possibility of cloning cabbage using biological material obtained from preserved samples of skin and bones. If Steller's cow had survived into the modern era, then, as many zoologists write, with its harmless disposition, it could have become the first marine pet.

Steller's cow in culture

Probably the most famous case mentions of Steller's cow in works classical literature is her image in Rudyard Kipling's story "The White Cat". In this work main character, a white fur seal, meets a herd of sea cows that have survived in an inaccessible bay of the Bering Sea:

The creatures really had a strange appearance and did not look like a whale, a shark, a walrus, a seal, a beluga whale, a seal, a stingray, an octopus, or a cuttlefish. They had a spindle-shaped body, twenty or thirty feet long, and instead of hind flippers they had a flat tail, like a spade of wet leather. Their heads were the most ridiculous shape imaginable, and when they looked up from eating, they began to swing on their tails, ceremoniously bowing in all directions and waving their front flippers, like a fat man in a restaurant calling the waiter.

see also

Notes

1. Life of animals. Volume 7. Mammals / ed. Sokolova V. E. (chief editor), Gilyarov M. S., Polyansky Yu. I., etc. - 2nd ed. - M.: Education, 1989. - P. 403. - 558 p. - ISBN 5-09-001434-5
2. Sokolov V. E. Systematics of mammals. Volume 3. Cetaceans, carnivores, pinnipeds, aardvarks, proboscideans, hyraxes, sirens, artiodactyls, callouseds, odd-toed ungulates. - M.: Higher School, 1979. - P. 332. - 528 p.
3. Sokolov V. E. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Mammals. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of academician. V. E. Sokolova. - M.: Rus. lang., 1984. - P. 121. - 10,000 copies.
4. Animal life / ed. S. P. Naumov and A. P. Kuzyakin.. - M.: “Enlightenment”, 1971. - T. 6 (mammals). - P. 409-410. - 628 p. - 300,000 copies.

Manatees are huge animals that live in the sea and feed on underwater vegetation. Their weight is up to 600 kg, and they can reach 5 meters in length. Most likely, the ancestors of manatees lived on land, but then decided to change their place of residence and moved to the water element. Initially, there were more than 20 species, but only three are known to man: manatees and dugongs. The first ones, unfortunately, no longer exist, since man has completely exterminated this species.

People discovered what a sea cow was in the 17th century and immediately began to mercilessly exterminate them. The meat of these animals is very tasty, the fat is soft and tender, which is especially good for making ointments; the skin of sea cows was also used. Manatees are now declared an endangered species and hunting them is prohibited. But still sea cows suffer from human activity. They continually swallow nets and hooks, which slowly kill them. Pollution of ocean waters and the construction of dams cause great harm to their health.

Because of heavy weight Manatees don't have many enemies. At sea they are threatened and at tropical rivers- caymans. Despite their phlegmatic nature and slowness, they still manage to avoid certain death, so the main enemy of sea cows is man. You cannot catch them, but a large number of animals die under ships, so many countries are developing programs to save manatees.

The sea cow prefers to live in shallow water, the optimal depth for it is 2-3 meters. Every day, manatees eat about 20% of their body weight in food, so they are specially bred in areas where excessive vegetation spoils water quality. They feed mainly early in the morning or in the evening, and during the day they rest, swimming to the shore to bask in the sun.

There are three types of manatees: African, Amazonian and American. The African sea cow, as befits all Africans, is slightly darker than its relatives. She lives in warm equatorial rivers and on the West African coast. The Amazonian manatee lives only in water, so its skin is smooth and even, and there is a white or pink spot on its chest and in some cases on its belly. The American sea cow prefers the Atlantic coast, she especially likes it. She can swim in both salty and fresh water. American manatees are the largest.

Manatees are very interesting to watch, their tail looks like an oar, and their front paws with claws resemble flippers. They use them very skillfully; they can walk along the bottom, scratch themselves, hold and stuff food into their mouths. Looking for food, basking in the sun, playing with other representatives of the species - these are all the worries that the sea cow has taken upon itself. The manatee mostly lives alone, only during the mating season the female is surrounded by about two dozen suitors.

The cub is carried for about a year, at birth its weight is about 30 kg, and its length is slightly more than a meter. He lives with his mother for about two years, she shows him her usual places to look for food. Then the manatee grows up and becomes independent. It is believed that their connection is inextricable and is maintained throughout life.

No other animal was exterminated by humans as quickly as Steller's cow. Only 27 years passed from the moment of its official discovery until its complete disappearance.

Steller's cow or sea cow (Latin: Hydrodamalis gigas) (English: Steller's sea cow)

Steller's cow belonged to the order of sirens, which includes 5 families, of which representatives of only 2 families have survived to us - these are manatees and dugongs. The latter included the sea cow.

She lived in the coastal zone of the Commander Islands, but there was also information that parts of her skeleton were found off the coast of Kamchatka and the Northern Kuril Islands.

A description of this sea animal was left only to its discoverer, Georg Steller, a doctor, naturalist and member of Vitus Bering’s expedition. He discovered this species in 1741 under very tragic circumstances - when the expedition ship was thrown ashore on the island of Avach, on which the captain and half of his crew died. Subsequently, this island was named in honor of V. Bering.

It was here that Steller first saw a sea cow, which he initially mistook for an ordinary manatee and gave it the name “manat.” Later this animal was named after the explorer, and Latin name Hydrodamalis gigas this species was given by Retzius in 1794.

About her appearance can also be judged only by the description left by Steller. It was a huge, sedentary animal, reaching 10 meters in length and weighing about 4 tons. The small head smoothly transitioned into a huge body, which ended in a forked tail, reminiscent of a whale's tail. Like cetaceans, they lacked hind limbs.

Steller's cow skull

This animal had no teeth, since its main food was large seaweed and other aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. Due to their herbivorous diet, these extinct animals were called sea cows.

Steller's cow lived in the shallow waters of the coastal zone. She practically couldn't dive. But the high bone density provided it with low buoyancy, which no other aquatic animal had. This gave the animal the opportunity to stay at the bottom for a long time and “pinch grass” without spending energy on diving. Periodically, she raised her head above the surface to take a breath of air.

The sea cow was a completely gullible and harmless creature, and this is what she paid for. People began to hunt these animals a long time ago, when their numbers were still quite large and their habitat was not limited only to northern part Pacific Ocean, but also extended from the Ryu-Kyu Islands to California. They survived on the Commander Islands only because by that time they had not yet been developed by humans.

This animal was mercilessly exterminated because of its subcutaneous fat, which had a pleasant taste and could be stored for a long time on hot days, and its tender meat was compared to beef in taste.

But already in 1768, Steller's cow disappeared from the face of the earth. Of course, some people claim to have seen small flocks of these animals. But there is no official confirmation of these words.

Thus, from the moment of its official discovery to its complete disappearance, only a little more than a quarter of a century passed. And Georg Steller became the only naturalist who managed to see these animals alive and leave a detailed description of them.

Human activity has resulted in death for many species of mammals. One of the brightest examples- the fate of the sea, or Steller's, cow. It was discovered in 1741 by Georg Steller, a participant in the second expedition of Vitus Bering.

The sea cows he described were large animals, ranging from 7.5 to 10 m in length and weighing up to 4 tons. Outwardly, they looked like huge seals. The tail ended with a large fin. The hind limbs were absent, and the front limbs were equipped with leathery “hooves”. The mouth was toothless. The cows tore algae (mainly seaweed) using the horny ribbed plates that covered the palate and lower jaw. They lived in shallow waters near the Commander Islands. We stayed together as families. They were slow and not at all afraid of people.

Steller's cow.

Unfortunately, the meat of sea cows turned out to be not only edible, but also very tasty. It didn't have the unpleasant fishy smell like others sea ​​creatures(after all, the cows ate algae). This sealed their fate. Steller's cows were exterminated from truly escape velocity- in just 27 years. The last sea cow killed off Bering Island was eaten by the Russian explorer Fedot Popov “and his retinue” - the same one after whom the island in the Sea of ​​​​Japan is named. The extermination took place so quickly that when Popov finished eating this last cow, the scientific world did not even know about its existence. Steller's diaries were published only six years after this sad event. To this day, only four complete skeletons and scattered bones remain of cows. A meager “inheritance”!

A unique animal has gone into oblivion, which probably could have been tamed, bred and provided with meat. Far East. True, some people express hope that sea cows have survived in some secluded bays of the sparsely populated islands of the Bering archipelago. And in Petropavlovsk newspapers sometimes there are reports that they were even seen at sea. But there is virtually no hope that these reports are true.

However, in warm seas The “relatives” of the sea cow in the order of sirens - manatees and dugongs - still live today. Compared to the background of a sea cow, they would look like dwarfs - they are 7-10 times inferior in weight to it. The resemblance of sirens to pinnipeds and cetaceans is purely external - their genus, according to scientists, is derived from terrestrial proboscis animals.