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Steller's Sea Cow was a sea dwelling mammal related to the Dugong that lived in the Bering Sea. Discovered in 1741, when Steller’s ship was wrecked on Bering Island, they were hunted to extinction by 1768. The Steller’s Sea Cow is a relic of the Pleistocene: most other giant mammals died off in the Quaternary Extinction, around 20,000 years earlier. George Steller, the man who discovered them, estimated their weight twice: once to be 4.4 tons (4000 kg) and a second time to be 26.8 tons (24300 kg). Their actual weight is thought to be around 10 tons (9000 kg). I don’t have very many pictures of them, but they’re enormous. Take a look at this comparison between them and some of their living relatives. While the commonly accepted belief for a long time has been that they were hunted to extinction, it’s possible that this was not the case. Humans are still very much guilty of the crime, however. The true culprit may very well have been the hunting of Sea Otters in the area. You see, Sea Otters like to eat Sea Urchins. With the Sea Otter population dwindling, the Sea Urchin population exploded. The Sea Urchins, in turn, feed off of Kelp forests. With so many Sea Urchins, the Kelp forests began to grow smaller, leaving no food for poor Steller’s Sea Cow. This chain of events is still relevant today, in the same area no less: Human Activity has caused Sea Lion and Seal populations to drop, leading Killer Whales to feed on Sea Otters instead, which causes the chain of events above. The extinction of Steller’s Sea Cow proved to scientists at the time that extinction was, in fact, possible. Today, it serves as a reminder of how interconnected and fragile life on earth can be. Always remember, all actions have consequences, and the consequences can be more far-reaching than you think.