Steller's Sea Ape

Steller’s Sea Ape
By: Zephan O
Seller's sea cow
Seller's sea lion
On August 10th, 1741 explorer George Wilhelm Steller Saw something that remains unexplained. It was the only animal identified by Steller that was not backed with physical evidence and other sightings. Steller was known as a credible and knowledgeable naturalist, hence many animals that Steller discovered have been named after him such as, the now extinct steller’s sea cow, steller’s sea lion, and steller's jay.    

Steller's jay

He was in the Aleutian chain on  an expedition led by Vitus Bering when he saw a very strange creature. He described the encounter in his Journal:
Seller's sea ape
On August 10, we saw a very unusual and unknown sea animal, of which I am going to give a brief account since I observed it for two whole hours. It was about two Russian ells in length, the head was like a dog’s, with pointed, erect ears. From the upper and lower lips on both sides whiskers hung down which made it look almost like a Chinaman, The eyes were large; the body was longish round and thick, tapering gradually towards the tail. The skin seemed thickly covered with hair, of a grey color on the back, but reddish white on the belly; in the water, however, the animal appeared equally reddish and cow colored. The tail was divided into two fins, of which the upper, as in the case of sharks, was twice as large as the lower.  



Steller attempted to shoot the creature and missed. The creature he saw has been named, Steller’s sea ape. There have been many theories as to what the creature was. It has been suggested that Steller misidentified a known species, such as a northern fur seal, but steller was well accustomed to the northern fur seal so this is unlikely. Another possible explanation is that steller’s sea ape was an undiscovered creature that is now extinct. It has also been suggested that the sea ape was a joke that Steller wrote about in his journal, and that he died before he could remove it from his journal before it was published. This theory is supported by the fact that stellar did not mentioned the creature in any other documents besides his journal.  
Steller’s report is considered by many to be the only sighting of the creature, however a wikipedia article on Steller’s sea ape mentions that sailor Miles Smeeton recorded an entry in his book while sailing the Aleutians in 1969 that describes a creature remarkably similar to Steller’s sea ape. The creature was seen by Miles, his friend, and his daughter. 
Works Cited
"Steller’s Sea Ape." Default Cryptomundo RSS 20. N.p., 27 July 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/stellers-seaape/
"Unraveling the Mysteries of Stellar’s Sea Ape." Southern Fried Science. Wiimedia Foundation, 04 Oct. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.http://www.southernfriedscience.com/unraveling-the-mysteries-of-stellars-sea-ape/

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