Cryptozoology Monsters: Stellars Sea Ape
EDIT: I don’t know about you, but I freaking love cryptozoology. It’s a pseudo-science examining the lives of mostly long extinct animals/mythical creatures that are supposedly still alive today. The best-known examples of these are cryptids such as “Bigfoot” or “Nessie”, the Loch Ness Monster. Today, we’re going to examine some of the lesser-known cryptids that I find fascinating and examining some (if any) of the palaeontological/historical evidence that may back up their stories.
First up: Stellers Sea Ape, described by the renowned expedition naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741.
Georg Wilhelm Steller is one of the most celebrated early naturalists of the mid 1700s. Unlike other naturalists of his time, Steller was meticulous in his details. Almost every animal he described in his travels between 1730s-40s to the northern areas of Alaska and the Bering strait were verified by modern science, including the largest species of sea cow ever known (the 10 metre long and seemingly fictitious “Steller’s sea cow”, Hydrodamalis gigas in 1741).
One of the most fascinating passages written by Steller describes an unknown animal only known as “Stellers sea ape” on the 10th August 1741, whilst on Vitus Bering’s expeditionary voyage to Alaska. His description is as follows (and trust me, it's worth it):
“The animal was 6 feet long. The head was like a dogs, the ears pointed and erect and on the upper and lower lips on both sides, whiskers hung down which made him look like a chinaman. The eyes were large. The body was longish, round and fat, but gradually became thinner toward the tail; the skin was covered thickly with hair, gray on the back, reddish white on the belly but in the water it seemed to be entirely red and cow coloured. The tail, which was equipped with fins, was divided in two parts, the upper fin being two times as long as the lower one, just like on the sharks. I could perceive neither fore-feet not fins in their place”.
Suffice to say, what the flipping fudge balls was going on with his description?
What was this 1.8 metre long dog headed, shark tailed animal? Steller made other reports and they remain the only descriptions of this seemingly mythical animal, noting general behaviour:
“For more than two hours it stayed with the ship, looking at us. It raised itself out of the water to one third of its length, like a human being and often remained in this position for several minutes…. It would shoot under the boat like an arrow over and over again… and repeat this manoeuvre… over thirty times. When it spotted seaweed, it would grab it with its mouth, swim towards the boat and did such juggling tricks that no one could have asked for anything more comical from a monkey. Now and then it bit off a piece and ate it“.
When thinking of a playful dog-like animal that swims near Alaska, I would think of something like a fur seal. Perhaps Steller could not see the front flippers of this animal? But Steller, in a later journal, wrote that he had seen large numbers of fur seals and so seemingly understood the biology of these seals. They are strict carnivores, so eating kelp also makes no sense.
WHAT ON EARTH DID STELLER SEE?
Richard Ellis, in a 1994 book on sea monsters, guessed that Steller had seen the very last of the pelagic “sea mink” or “Neovison macrodon” a recently extinct intertidal marine predator, twice as large as the eastern mink. But what about the loss of arms and shark like tails? It was never sufficiently answered. Maybe this was a more obligately marine variety of sea mink? Image via John James Audubon of the Sea Mink
Maybe Steller, much like the sea cow species he discovered in 1741, saw the very last one before it became extinct.
Some arguments state that he was making fun of a fellow sailor on board the expedition, who had pissed him off insurmountably and wanted to immortalise him as a lesser “sea-ape”. He died at a young age and may not have had the chance to remove it before it was published.
Whatever Steller saw, there has been no fossil evidence ever found of Stellers sea ape and so it seems to remain an indefinite mystery. What is your opinion of Stellers sea ape? Leave a comment below!
Next up in this series is the cryptid from the interior of Madagascar: the “kalanoro”, a humanoid that would supposedly abduct small children from villages.
Frost, O.W. 2003. Bering: The Russian Discovery of America. Yale University Press.
Littlepage, D. (2006). Steller's Island: Adventures of a Pioneer Naturalist in Alaska. The Mountaineers Books.
First up: Stellers Sea Ape, described by the renowned expedition naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller in 1741.
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| "We shall start our offensive here against the sea cows. Within exactly 27 years, we will have them cornered". Image of Georg Steller via the University of Tyumen, The Centre of Russian-German Cooperation of Georg Wilhelm Steller. |
Georg Wilhelm Steller is one of the most celebrated early naturalists of the mid 1700s. Unlike other naturalists of his time, Steller was meticulous in his details. Almost every animal he described in his travels between 1730s-40s to the northern areas of Alaska and the Bering strait were verified by modern science, including the largest species of sea cow ever known (the 10 metre long and seemingly fictitious “Steller’s sea cow”, Hydrodamalis gigas in 1741).
 |
| Described as being highly gregarious, these sirenians were slaughtered in their droves. According to Steller, after a single individual was hunted and brought to shore, his/her mate followed even after the captured animal had died and was hauled up to the beach. "Two for the price of one". It took only 27 years for humans to obliterate this species off the face of the earth via overhunting. Image via the Encyclopedia Britannia. |
“The animal was 6 feet long. The head was like a dogs, the ears pointed and erect and on the upper and lower lips on both sides, whiskers hung down which made him look like a chinaman. The eyes were large. The body was longish, round and fat, but gradually became thinner toward the tail; the skin was covered thickly with hair, gray on the back, reddish white on the belly but in the water it seemed to be entirely red and cow coloured. The tail, which was equipped with fins, was divided in two parts, the upper fin being two times as long as the lower one, just like on the sharks. I could perceive neither fore-feet not fins in their place”.
Suffice to say, what the flipping fudge balls was going on with his description?
What was this 1.8 metre long dog headed, shark tailed animal? Steller made other reports and they remain the only descriptions of this seemingly mythical animal, noting general behaviour:
“For more than two hours it stayed with the ship, looking at us. It raised itself out of the water to one third of its length, like a human being and often remained in this position for several minutes…. It would shoot under the boat like an arrow over and over again… and repeat this manoeuvre… over thirty times. When it spotted seaweed, it would grab it with its mouth, swim towards the boat and did such juggling tricks that no one could have asked for anything more comical from a monkey. Now and then it bit off a piece and ate it“.
When thinking of a playful dog-like animal that swims near Alaska, I would think of something like a fur seal. Perhaps Steller could not see the front flippers of this animal? But Steller, in a later journal, wrote that he had seen large numbers of fur seals and so seemingly understood the biology of these seals. They are strict carnivores, so eating kelp also makes no sense.
WHAT ON EARTH DID STELLER SEE?
Richard Ellis, in a 1994 book on sea monsters, guessed that Steller had seen the very last of the pelagic “sea mink” or “Neovison macrodon” a recently extinct intertidal marine predator, twice as large as the eastern mink. But what about the loss of arms and shark like tails? It was never sufficiently answered. Maybe this was a more obligately marine variety of sea mink? Image via John James Audubon of the Sea Mink
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| "Wicked Master, wants to hurt Precioussssss!" Image via John James Audubon of the Sea Minks Gollum and Smeagol |
Some arguments state that he was making fun of a fellow sailor on board the expedition, who had pissed him off insurmountably and wanted to immortalise him as a lesser “sea-ape”. He died at a young age and may not have had the chance to remove it before it was published.
 |
| Is this what Steller saw? Image via unknown. |
Whatever Steller saw, there has been no fossil evidence ever found of Stellers sea ape and so it seems to remain an indefinite mystery. What is your opinion of Stellers sea ape? Leave a comment below!
Next up in this series is the cryptid from the interior of Madagascar: the “kalanoro”, a humanoid that would supposedly abduct small children from villages.
References
Littlepage, D. (2006). Steller's Island: Adventures of a Pioneer Naturalist in Alaska. The Mountaineers Books.
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