Steller’s Sea Cow, known scientifically as Hydrodamalis gigas, was a large, slow-moving, marine mammal that was hunted to extinction for its hide, meat, and blubber in the 18th century. Much of what is known about Steller’s Sea Cow is from observations made by Georg Wilhelm Steller when an sea expedition he was on shipwrecked on Bering Island giving him time to observe this creature in its natural habitat, the Bering Sea. Before modern times, the Steller’s Sea Cow is believed to have lived all across the Pacific ocean, but then had its habitat constricted due to the glacial cycle. The Steller’s Sea Cow’s only living relative is the much smaller dugong, which is considered vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN.