📸 PhotoPhoto: FunkMonk · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Steller's Sea Cow
Hydrodamalis gigas (Steller's Sea Cow · ステラーカイギュウ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its body length of 7.5 m is about 2/3 the length of a city bus (about 12 m) (Comparison).
- 💡 Hunters caught it mainly for food; its meat tasted and felt similar to beef, its fat was used for cooking and lamp oil, and its milk was made into butter.
- 💡 Its hide was used to make shoes, belts, and skin-covered boats.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
Steller's Sea Cow was a giant sirenian that lived in the Bering Sea and is now extinct (EX).
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
It was much larger than any living sirenian. Steller recorded in 1751 that a single female measured about 7.5 m. Its hide was thick and tough.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It fed mainly on brown and red algae, with a small amount of seagrass. It lived in herds, keeping calves and juveniles toward the middle of the group. Females gave birth to a single calf at a time, and mates appear to have formed strong pair bonds.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List EX (2016) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/10303/43792683
- • IUCN Red List category EX — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • mammaldiversity.org — 1000530
- • iucnredlist.org — 43792683
- • wikidata.org — Q187484
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Hydrodamalis.jpg
- • animaldiversity.org — Hydrodamalis gigas
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — author not recorded · Public Domain Mark 1.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.