Hydrodamalis gigas
Bering Island, Commander Islands · last reported kill 1768 ↗
Four accounts · 1751–1881
“It happened to me on one unlucky occasion that I could watch the habits and ways of these beasts daily for ten months from the door of my hut” […]
Steller, 1751; trans. W. Miller and J. E. Miller, 1899, p. 197
| Place | Bering Island · Commander Islands |
|---|---|
| Subject | Herds, breeding, and feeding |
| Language | Latin · English translation |
“When we came the next day, early in the morning, to cut up the flesh and take it home, we found the male still waiting near his mate” […]
Steller, 1751; trans. W. Miller and J. E. Miller, 1899, p. 199
| Place | Bering Island · Commander Islands |
|---|---|
| Subject | Hunting by Bering’s crew, 1742 |
| Language | Latin · English translation |
“the last of this species was killed in 1768 on Bering’s island, and none have been ever seen since.”
Sauer, 1802, p. 181
Sauer reports the date at second hand and names no source.
| Place | Bering Island · reported |
|---|---|
| Subject | Extinction date |
| Language | English |
“The death-year of the Rhytina race must therefore be altered at least to 1854.”
Nordenskiöld, 1881; trans. A. Leslie, II, pp. 277–278
Based on interviews in 1879. Stejneger re-examined the informants and rejected the 1854 sighting.
| Place | Bering Island · Tolstoj-mys, east coast |
|---|---|
| Subject | Testimony of later sightings |
| Language | Swedish · English translation |
Georg Wilhelm Steller, 1751; Martin Sauer, 1802; A. E. Nordenskiöld, 1881.
Steller’s observations of sea cow herds, feeding and breeding during the wintering on Bering Island, 1741–1742.
Steller’s account of the shipwrecked crew’s hunting method, and of the herd’s response to a harpooned animal.
The Billings expedition’s secretary reports that the last sea cow was killed on Bering Island in 1768.
Testimony gathered on Bering Island in 1879, used to argue that sea cows survived until about 1854. Disputed by Stejneger.