By some means, Steller’s Sea Eagle manages to look each fierce and barely cartoonish. Possibly the latter is as a result of the fowl is so plump, or possibly it’s as a result of (no less than to me) the top appears prefer it has been created by a considerably amateurish wooden carver.
The species is listed as Susceptible – the estimated variety of people is 4600-5100 (HBW), of which about 2000 winter on Hokkaido.
Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709 – 1746) was a German-born naturalist, although it appears he spent most of his (shortish) grownup life in Russia, collaborating within the exploration of the North Pacific area.
In what may these days be thought to be a barely bizarre scientific observe, after assembly naturalist Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt, he married Messerschmidt’s widow after his demise and obtained notes from Messerschmidt’s Siberia travels from her that had not been handed over to the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
However marrying a widow and thus having access to scientific info was not the one outstanding occasion in his life. He additionally
- Was probably the primary non-native to set foot on Alaskan soil
- Grew to become shipwrecked on Bering island
- Survived a winter there residing on sea lions, fur seals, and sea cows
- Left the island in a ship constructed from salvaged elements of the shipwreck
- Was falsely accused of releasing rebels from jail by a jealous rival
- Was put below arrest in Irkutsk
- Died of a fever in Siberia, aged 37.
The place is the film about his life then?
Again to the eagle. There’s a e book on the species, however it’s out of print and appears unimaginable to seek out even in on-line secondhand bookstores. If (like me) you wish to really feel unhealthy about it, chances are you’ll wish to learn the overview of the e book right here.
Even the overview has some fascinating info – for instance, a serious predator of eagle nests is the Brown Bear.
It’s much more particular, stating that brown bears depredate 20 % of offspring on Sakhalin Island (however not on the mainland).
One other hazard to the species comes from lead poisoning as they eat the carcasses of deer killed by hunters (supply).
The eagles don’t breed on Hokkaido, spending just a few winter months there – so if you wish to see courtship shows as described in right here, you need to go additional North a bit later within the yr.
Lastly, there may be an fascinating paper making an attempt to estimate the financial worth of a Steller’s Sea Eagle – on this case, a vagrant exhibiting up in North America. The eagle spent almost a month on the japanese seaboard of the USA, attracting 1000’s of birdwatchers. By way of an internet survey, these birdwatchers have been requested about their bills and their willingness to pay to see the eagle.
The outcome: The authors estimate that particular person birdwatchers spent USD $180 ignoring journey time or $277 when accounting for journey time to view the eagle. In addition they estimate between 2115 and 2645 people traveled to see the eagle. Thus, the eagle generated a complete expenditure between $380,604 and $476,626, or between $584,373 and $731,809 when accounting for journey time, and yielded what economists name a non-consumptive use client surplus between $139,036 and $174,114.
Not unhealthy.
Bonus photographs: One to bother these individuals who don’t like human gadgets in fowl photographs …
… and one exhibiting an embarrassing second for an eagle, crashing into the ice.
