It is hard to guess what a Steller’s sea cow weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) on average weights 4000 kg (8818.48 lbs).
The Steller’s sea cow is from the family Dugongidae (genus: Hydrodamalis). When reaching adult age, they grow up to 7.63 meter (25′ 1″). Usually, Steller’s sea cows have 1 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
Steller’s sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is an extinct sirenian described by Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741. At that time, it was found only around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia; its range was more extensive during the Pleistocene epoch, and it is possible that the animal and humans previously interacted. Some 18th-century adults would have reached weights of 8–10 t (8.8–11.0 short tons) and lengths up to 9 m (30 ft).It was a part of the order Sirenia and a member of the family Dugongidae, of which its closest living relative, the 3 m (9.8 ft) long dugong (Dugong dugon), is the sole living member. It had a thicker layer of blubber than other members of the order, an adaptation to the cold waters of its environment. Its tail was forked, like that of whales or dugongs. Lacking true teeth, it had an array of white bristles on its upper lip and two keratinous plates within its mouth for chewing. It fed mainly on kelp, and communicated with sighs and snorting sounds. Evidence suggests it was a monogamous and social animal living in small family groups and raising its young, similar to modern sirenians.Steller’s sea cow was named after Georg Wilhelm Steller, who first encountered it on Vitus Bering’s Great Northern Expedition when the crew became shipwrecked on Bering Island. Much of what is known about its behavior comes from Steller’s observations on the island, documented in his posthumous publication On the Beasts of the Sea. Within 27 years of discovery by Europeans, the slow-moving and easily caught mammal was hunted into extinction for its meat, fat, and hide.
Animals of the same family as a Steller’s sea cow
We found other animals of the Dugongidae family:
- Dugong bringing 295 kilos (650.36 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Steller’s sea cow
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Hydrodamalis gigas:
- Sowerby’s beaked whale with a weight of 3400 kilos (7495.71 lbs)
- Northern bottlenose whale with a weight of 3391.68 kilos (7477.37 lbs)
- African bush elephant with a weight of 3882.27 kilos (8558.93 lbs)
- African forest elephant with a weight of 4750 kilos (10471.95 lbs)
- Cuvier’s beaked whale with a weight of 4772.5 kilos (10521.55 lbs)
- Hubbs’ beaked whale with a weight of 3400 kilos (7495.71 lbs)
- Stejneger’s beaked whale with a weight of 4800 kilos (10582.18 lbs)
- Asian elephant with a weight of 3294.9 kilos (7264 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Steller’s sea cow
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Steller’s sea cow:
- Gervais’ beaked whale with a size of 6.71 meter (22′ 1″)
- Killer whale with a size of 8.66 meter (28′ 5″)
- Northern bottlenose whale with a size of 8.79 meter (28′ 10″)
- Southern bottlenose whale with a size of 6.7 meter (22′ 0″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Steller’s sea cow
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Steller’s sea cow: