STRANGEST BEASTS TO EVER DIE

by Ann M. Cairns
 
stellers sea cow

Steller's Sea Cow

In the 18th century German naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller first observed and wrote about these impressive marine mammals. They were gentle giants, herbivores that ate seaweed in the shallow waters of the icy North Pacific. Hunters had no trouble killing them for their meat and thick fat. As a result, they were extinct less than 30 years after their discovery, the last one reportedly killed on Bering Island in 1767.

Credit:  Caribbean Environment Program/UNEP

Article posted February 16, 2009.

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Image Credits Ann M. Cairns, U.S. National Committee, International Year of Planet Earth

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