The manatee is a good-natured sea cow. Florida: Where the Sea Cow Lives Sea Cow Post

One of the most bitter reminders of human cruelty can be the stories of Steller's cow (lat. Hydrodamalis gigas). Its other names are sea ​​cow or cabbage. It was first discovered off the coast of the Commander Islands in 1741, and 27 years later the last representative of the species living there was killed.

Yes, yes, it took a little more than a quarter of a century to completely exterminate a population of more than 2 thousand individuals. People tried very hard: at least 170 heads were killed a year, and the peak of this bloody massacre occurred in 1754, when half a thousand cabbages were destroyed at once. However, no measures were taken to preserve and maintain the number of animals.

The misfortunes of the sea cow began in 1741, when the ship “St. Peter” crashed near one of the small islands, which was later named after the ship’s captain, Vitus Bering. On this godforsaken island the team was forced to stay for the winter. Unfortunately, not everyone survived it; the captain was among the dead. To survive, the sailors were forced to catch one of the strange sea animals eating algae near the shore.

Its meat turned out to be not only tasty, but also healthy. The patients quickly regained their strength and soon the team was able to build a new ship to return home on. Among the survivors was the naturalist Georg Steller, who described the sea cows in detail. True, the scientist himself was sure that in front of him, and only in 1780 the German zoologist Zimmermann was able to prove that this was absolutely the new kind.

What did this animal look like? According to Steller, it was a huge and very clumsy creature, whose body length reached 7.5-10 meters and weight - 3.5-11 tons. His body was very thick, and his head seemed very small in comparison. The forelimbs were rounded flippers with one joint in the center. They ended in a small horny growth, similar to a horse's hoof. Instead of hind limbs, the cabbage bird had a powerful forked tail.

Steller's cow leather was very durable. It was even often used to make sea boats. It was so folded and thick that it looked a little like oak bark. Such protection was needed to escape from sharp coastal stones, especially in rough seas.

Sea cows spent almost all their time eating algae. They were so passionate about the process that they allowed boats with hunters to calmly sail between them, choosing suitable prey. The “hunt” itself is otherwise brutal reprisal very difficult to name. Well, judge for yourself: first the harpooner drove his lethal weapon, and then about 30 people dragged the unfortunate woman to the shore. Of course, the wounded animal desperately resisted and suffered.

Finally, extremely exhausted, the cabbage fish was dragged ashore and finished off. Sometimes pieces of meat were cut directly from a living cow, which caused incredible suffering. But the most unpleasant thing is that this method of fishing made it possible to pull out only one out of five animals, while the rest died in the water.

It is interesting that after the extermination of Steller's cow, the scientific world was excited several times by reports of people meeting these unique creatures. Unfortunately, none of them have been confirmed yet. Last news date back to June 2012: according to some online publications, Steller's cow is alive - a population of 30 individuals was found off a small island belonging to the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The melting of the ice made it possible to penetrate into its most remote corners, where the cabbages were found. Let's hope that the rumors will be confirmed, and humanity will be able to correct its fatal mistake.

Throughout the centuries-old existence of our planet, many species of plants and animals have appeared and disappeared. Some of them died out due to unfavorable conditions habitat, climate change, etc., but most died at the hands of man. Steller's cow more precisely the story its extermination, became a vivid example of human cruelty and short-sightedness, because at the speed with which this mammal was destroyed, not a single one was destroyed Living being on the ground.

It is assumed that the largest cow existed many thousands of years ago. At one time, its habitat covered most of the northern part Pacific Ocean, the animal was found near the Komandorsky and Aleutian regions of Sakhalin and Kamchatka. Manati could not live further north because she needed more warm waters, and to the south it was exterminated thousands of years ago. Afterwards, the sea level rose, and Steller's cow was transferred from the continents to the islands, which allowed it to survive until the 18th century, when it was inhabited by people.

The animal is named after the encyclopedist scientist Steller, who discovered this species in 1741. The mammal was very calm, harmless and friendly. Its weight was about 5 tons, and its body length reached 8 m. Cow fat was especially valued; its thickness was the width of a human palm, it had a rather pleasant taste and did not spoil at all even in the heat. The meat resembled beef, only a little denser, it was attributed to healing properties. The skin was used for upholstery of boats.

Steller's cow died because of her gullibility and excessive philanthropy. She constantly ate algae, so when swimming near the shore, she kept her head under water and her body on top. Therefore, you could calmly swim up to her on a boat and even stroke her. If the animal was hurt, it swam away from the shore, but soon returned again, forgetting past grievances.

About 30 people hunted the cows at once, because the unfortunate ones were stubborn and it was difficult to pull them ashore. When wounded, the mammal panted heavily and moaned; if relatives were nearby, they tried to help, turned the boat over and beat the rope with their tails. As sad as it may be, Steller's cow was exterminated in less than three decades from the discovery of the species. Already in 1768, the last representative of this good-natured sea creature disappeared.

Disputes continue among scientists today regarding the habitats of this mammal. Some argue that Steller's cows lived only near the Medny and Bering islands, while others are inclined to believe that they were also found in the Alaska region and Far East. But there is not much evidence for the second assumption; these are either corpses thrown up by the sea, or speculation of local residents. But still, the skeleton of a cow was discovered on the island of Attu.

Be that as it may, Steller's cow was exterminated by man. From the order of sirens, manatees and dugongs still remain today, but they are also on the verge of extinction. Constant poaching, change natural environment habitats, fatal injuries from ships - all this reduces the number of these wonderful animals every year.

Steller's cow, sea cow, or cabbage butterfly (Hydrodamalis gigas) was discovered as a species in 1741 by the expedition of Vitus Bering. Belongs to the mammals of the sirenian order.

It received its name in honor of the naturalist Georg Steller (the doctor of the expedition of V. Bering), who first described this animal.

The Steller cow lived only off the coast of the Commander Islands, was rapaciously exterminated for meat, and completely disappeared by 1768. In just 27 years...

Modern paleontological data show that in prehistoric times its range was noticeably wider.

Commander Islands and the nearest part of Kamchatka

Although Steller's cow is considered extinct, there is, however, unverified evidence that even after the 1760s, sea cows were occasionally encountered by natives of the Russian Far East.

Thus, in 1834, two hunters 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.” And similar messages, according to some researchers, were quite frequent in the 19th century.

There is some evidence, also unconfirmed, that Steller's cow was seen in the 20th century. So, in 1962, members of the crew of a Soviet whaler 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 a Steller's cow was even published in the newspaper Kamchatsky Komsomolets.

And in 1976, the editors of the magazine “Around the World” received a letter from Kamchatka meteorologist Yu. V. Koev, who said that he had seen a Steller’s cow at Cape Lopatka. He wrote that “... 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? Whales, killer whales, seals, sea ​​lions, seals, sea otters and walruses repeatedly. 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 that, hind legs they are pressed against each other, and it is clear that these are flippers, and this one had a tail like a whale’s. It seemed... 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...”

However, none of the observations have been confirmed. Some enthusiasts and cryptozoologists suggest that there is still a small population of Steller's cows in remote and inaccessible areas of the Kamchatka Territory.

Steller's cow was very large sizes. In terms of length and body mass, she probably surpassed everyone else aquatic mammals, except cetaceans, reaching seven to eight meters in length, and weighing five or more tons! She was larger than even her closest relative and probable ancestor - the extinct Hydrodamalis Cuesta (Hydrodamalis cuestae) (body length more than nine meters with a probable weight of up to ten tons).

Steller's cow led a sedentary lifestyle, staying mostly close to the shore, but was probably not able to dive. This animal ate exclusively seaweed, and primarily seaweed, for which it received its second name - “cabbage”.

Steller's cow was a very slow and apathetic animal, and had no fear of humans. It was these factors that contributed to its rapid disappearance. In addition, the overall low population at the time of discovery – about 2 thousand – also played a role. She apparently had no natural enemies.

Museums around the world preserve a significant number of skeletal remains of Steller's cows, including several complete skeletons, as well as pieces of their skin.

Sketch of a female Steller's cow, described and measured G. Steller.
It is considered the only image of a cow made from life.

Steller's sea cow. Drawing by Sven Waxel

As already mentioned, Europeans first saw Steller's cows in November 1741 (not counting hypothetical contacts with them by prehistoric inhabitants of Asia and North America, as well as later aboriginal tribes of Siberia), when the ship of commander Vitus Bering “St. Peter” was wrecked while trying to anchor off the island, which was 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 extinct 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 10-month stay on the island, 6 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 reports are based on the work of G. Steller “On the Beasts of the Sea” ( De bestiis marinis), first published in 1751.

Georg Steller believed he saw a manatee ( Trichechus manatus), and in his notes he identified Steller’s cow with him, claiming that this is an animal that in the Spanish possessions in America is called “manat” ( manati).

The Steller's cow was described as a new species only in 1780 by the German zoologist E. Zimmermann.

A generally accepted name Hydrodamalis gigas(the generic name literally means “water cow”, the specific name means “giant”) was given by the Swedish biologist A. J. Retzius in 1794.

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

The appearance of the Steller cow is characteristic of all sirenids, with the exception that it was much larger than its relatives in size.

The body of the animal was thick and ridged, the head, in comparison with the size of the body, was very small, and the animal 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, as G. Steller put it, reminiscent of the bark of an old oak tree. The skin 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. But the Steller cow did not have teeth; it ground food with the help of two horny plates white(one on each jaw). 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 the significant development of the inner ear. However, Steller's cows hardly reacted at all to the noise of the boats approaching them.

The longest documented length of a sea cow is 7.88 meters.

As for body weight, it was very significant - on the order of several tons, according to various sources from 4 to 11 tons, which is even heavier African elephant! Those. Steller's cow was, apparently, in first place in weight among all mammals leading an aquatic lifestyle, with the exception of cetaceans (exceeding in average weight even such a giant as the southern elephant seal).

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.

Usually the female and the male kept together with the young yearling and the young of the previous year, and in general the cows usually “grazed” in large herds.

The lifespan of the Steller's cow, like its closest relative the dugong, could reach 90 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, the cabbage fish, if they did not have time to move away from the shore, often died from being hit by rocks in strong waves.

The dugong is the closest relative of the Steller's cow

Calculations made in the 1880s by Steineger indicate that the number of Steller's cows throughout their range at the time of the discovery of this species was hardly more than 1500-2000 individuals.

In 2006, an assessment was made of all the factors that could lead to the rapid extinction of Steller cows. The results showed that with an initial population of 2,000 individuals, predatory hunting alone would be more than enough to cause extermination within two to three decades.

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 Northern Arctic Ocean was separated from the Pacific by land located on the site of the modern Bering Strait, Beringia. The climate in the northwestern part of the 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 widespread distribution of the order Sirenidae in this geographical area.

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 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.

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 in prehistoric times 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.

Industrialists who hunted sea otters there and researchers who arrived on the Commander Islands hunted Steller cows for their meat.

The usual method of catching Steller's cows was using a hand harpoon. 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 big 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 portion of the cows fell into the hands of people; the rest died at sea from wounds; according to some estimates, hunters received only one out of five harpooned animals.

From 1743 to 1763, several parties of industrialists with a total number of up to 50 people wintered on the Commander Islands. They all mercilessly killed sea cows for meat.

By 1754, sea cows were completely exterminated from the island. Copper. It is believed that Fr.'s last cow was Bering 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 was almost completely exterminated.

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 3 tons of meat could be obtained from a slaughtered cow, and the meat of one cow was enough to feed 33 people for a month. 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.

The role of the Steller's cow in the ecological balance of the sea was very significant, primarily due to the consumption of significant amounts of algae by this animal. In those places where sea cows ate algae, the number increased sea ​​urchins, which form the basis of the diet of sea otters. It is noted that the prehistoric range of the Steller's cow coincided with the range of the sea otter. Overall, experts believe that the ecological relationship between the Steller's cow and the sea otter was significant.

When the sea cows disappeared, large algae formed in coastal strip The Commander Islands are full of thickets. 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 intensive reproduction single-celled 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, reaching fish, sea otters and seabirds along the trophic chain, and lead to their death.

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. In museums around the world there is significant number bones and skeletons of this animal, 59 world museums have such exhibits.

Several remains of a sea cow skin are also preserved. Steller's cow replicas reconstructed from high degree accuracy, are available in many museums. Among this number of exhibits are several well-preserved skeletons.

Skeleton of a Steller's cow in the Zoological Museum named after Benedikt Dibovsky in Lviv

Skeletons of Steller's cows are in the Zoological Museum of Moscow University, collected in 1837, the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (incomplete skeleton of an individual 6.87 meters long, found in 1855), Paleontological Museum in Kyiv (complete skeleton, collected in 1879 -1882), Khabarovsk local history museum(almost complete skeleton), Kharkov Museum of Nature (complete composite skeleton 1879-1882, some elements added in the 1970s), in the 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), in the USA, in Washington, in National Museum natural history (a composite skeleton collected in 1883 by Steineger, at the University of California at Berkeley - an almost complete skeleton composed of the bones of several individuals (acquired in 1904), at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University in Massachusetts (an almost complete composite skeleton, probably collected by Steineger), the London Natural History Museum (a complete skeleton made up of the bones of two individuals), the Edinburgh Museum (an almost complete composite skeleton found on Medny Island by the Russian scientist D. F. Sinitsyn, brought to Great Britain in 1897), in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (two almost complete composite skeletons, acquired in 1898), in the Natural History Museum in Vienna (almost complete composite skeleton, 1897), in the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm (incomplete skeleton from bones collected in 1879 by the expedition of A. Nordenskiöld on the barque "Vega"), in the Museum of Natural History at the University of Helsinki (the complete skeleton of a young individual 5.3 meters long, composed of bones collected in 1861 by the Chief Ruler of the Russian-American Company (Governor of Russian Alaska) I. V. Furugelm.

Skeleton of a Steller's cow in the National Museum of Natural History in Paris

Skeleton of a Steller's cow in the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.

There is a debate among cryptozoologists about the possibility of cloning cabbageweed using biological material obtained from preserved samples of skin and bones.

And if Steller's cow had survived until modern era, then, as many zoologists write, with its harmless disposition, it could become the first marine pet.

List of used literature

Grzimek B. Sirens: “Sea Cows” // “Chemistry and Life”, No. 11, 1981

The Case of Steller's Cow // Around the World, No. 10, 1991

Animal life // Ed. S. P. Naumova and A. P. Kuzyakin M.: “Enlightenment”, 1971.

Life of animals. Volume 7. Mammals // Ed. Sokolova V.E., Gilyarov M.S., Polyansky Yu.I. and others. M.: Education, 1989.

Kalyakin V.N. Sea (Steller's) cow, cabbage (cabbage). Animal world.

Sokolov V.E. Systematics of mammals. Volume 3. Cetaceans, carnivores, pinnipeds, aardvarks, proboscideans, hyraxes, sirenians, artiodactyls

Skeleton of Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). Museums of Russia (2001-2010).

A short story about one of the the brightest representatives black book - Steller's sea cow, exterminated just a few years after its discovery.

The history of biology contains many interesting events, sometimes the most incredible facts, the names of scientists who different time made new and new discoveries. One of its black pages, without even suspecting it, was flipped through by the German naturalist and traveler Georg Wilhelm Steller. From 1733 to 1742, on instructions from the Russian tsarist government, he explored the strait from the Pacific to the Arctic Ocean, and participated in the famous Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering. On the way back, the ship was wrecked, and Steller, along with some surviving companions, spent three years on a deserted island, studying its fauna.

In 1741, in the book “On Sea Animals,” Steller described several new species of animals unknown to science, among which were sea otters (sea otters) and a now extinct mammal from the order of sirens - the sea cow, later called Steller’s cow. Although several genera and families of marine animals were named after him, Steller's cow became the most famous.

This clumsy animal reached a length of 10 meters and weighed up to 4 tons. The small head gradually, almost without a cervical interception, turned into an elongated ridged body, ending with a tail like a whale’s. The pectoral fins, necessary for slow swimming and movement in shallow water, according to Geller’s own description, were somewhat reminiscent of horse hooves. These animals ate algae. This is how Steller wrote about their way of life: “These insatiable creatures, without ceasing, eat and due to their irrepressible gluttony, they almost always keep their heads under water... While they are grazing like this, they have no other worries than to stick their nose out every four or five minutes and push it out of their lungs along with a fountain of water air, the sound they make at the same time resembles a horse's neighing, snoring and snorting... They have little interest in what is happening around them, not caring at all about preserving own life and safety." This, apparently, was their undoing. Already by 1754, sea cows were completely exterminated near Medny Island, and by 1768 - near Bering Island. They were hunted for fat and meat. “And from that one cow, all thirty-three people enjoyed the meat for one month as food” (Petr Yakovlev, Ober-Stenforwalter).

In 1879, that is, 86 years after the last Steller's cow was killed, three inhabitants of Bering Island told the Norwegian explorer A. Nordenskiöld about encounters in 1854 with animals similar to sea cows. And in our time, similar evidence is still appearing. So, in 1962, scientists from a Soviet research vessel noticed six large fish grazing in shallow water near Cape Navarina (in the northeast of Kamchatka). unusual looking dark-skinned animals. A sensational article about this was published in the popular science magazine Nature. And in 1966, an article on this topic appeared again in the Kamchatsky Komsomolets newspaper. It reported that fishermen had seen sea cows south of Cape Navarina. Moreover, not knowing their name, the fishermen gave a detailed and very accurate description of these animals and immediately recognized Steller’s cows from the image offered to them. These people were quite surprised when they were informed that sea cows were completely exterminated about 200 years ago.

Famous Soviet scientists (V. G. Geptner, V. E. Sokolov and others), specialists in large marine mammals, consider all modern references to encounters with Steller's cows to be untrustworthy. Well, maybe so. But I still want to believe that this miracle of nature, which people could not save, still lives somewhere in the ocean waters between the islands of the Commander Archipelago. After all, the lobe-finned fish coelacanth (coelacanth) was discovered in 1938, which was considered extinct back in Cretaceous period(that is, more than 70 million years ago).

Steller's cow is also called sea cow or cabbage cow. This animal belongs to the genus of sea cows and the order of sirens.

This species of animal became extinct in 1768. The cabbage fish lived near the Commander Islands, ate algae and were famous for their delicious meat.

Appearance of a Steller cow

The length of the sea cow reached 8 meters, and the cabbage weighed about 4 tons. Externally, the sea cow was not much different from its siren relatives; the only difference was its superiority in size. The body of the sea cow was thick. The head is small in size compared to the entire body mass, but the cabbage bird could move its head not only in different directions, but also raise and lower it. The limbs resembled rounded flippers that ended in a horny growth. It was also compared to a horse's hoof. The cabbage tree had a horizontal tail blade with a notch in the middle.

The cow's skin was very thick and folded. Many scientists compared the skin of a Steller cow with the bark of an old oak tree, and a German scientist who managed to compare the remains of the skin argued that the strength and elasticity were in no way inferior to modern ones. car tires.

The eyes and ears of the sea cow were small. The sea cow had no teeth, and the cow ground the food that entered the oral cavity with horny plates. It is assumed that males differed from females only in size; males were, as a rule, larger.

The inner ear of the Steller's cow indicated good hearing, but this animal did not react in any way to the noise of the boats that sailed towards them.

Lifestyle of the extinct Steller's cow

Basically, sea cows swam shallowly in shallow water and fed constantly. The forelimbs were often used for support on the ground. The backs of cabbage fish were constantly visible from the water, on which seabirds often landed and pecked whale lice from the folds. Sea cows were not afraid to swim close to the shore. As a rule, the female and male were always nearby, but usually these animals kept in a herd. Cows rested on their backs and became famous for their slowness. The lifespan of a sea cow could reach 90 years. The cabbage bird made virtually no sounds, but the wounded animal was capable of capsizing a fishing boat.

Steller cow nutrition

The sea cow ate only seaweed that grew in coastal waters. It was considered a favorite delicacy seaweed, for which the animal received the name “cabbage”. While eating, the sea cow picked algae underwater and raised its head every 3-4 minutes to inhale air. The sound that the cabbage plant made at the same time resembles the snorting of a horse. IN winter period Over time, Steller's cow lost a lot of weight. Many observers claimed that during this period of time the ribs of the animal could even be seen.

Reproduction of Steller's cow

Almost nothing is known about the reproduction of Steller cows. Scientists say that cabbage ducks are monogamous and usually mate in the spring. Researchers talk about great affection in this animal. Over the course of several days, the males swam to the killed female, along with the cubs.

Enemies of the Steller's cow in nature

Natural enemies of the Steller's cow have not been identified, but there are frequent cases when cabbage cows died under the ice in winter, as well as in storms - those individuals that did not have time to move away from the shore were broken on the rocks. People hunted cabbage fish exclusively for meat.