In some way, Steller’s Sea Eagle manages to look each fierce and barely cartoonish. Perhaps the latter is as a result of the hen is so plump, or possibly it’s as a result of (no less than to me) the top seems to be prefer it has been created by a considerably amateurish wooden carver.
The species is listed as Weak – 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 received 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 exceptional occasion in his life. He additionally
- Was presumably the primary non-native to set foot on Alaskan soil
- Grew to become shipwrecked on Bering island
- Survived a winter there dwelling on sea lions, fur seals, and sea cows
- Left the island in a ship created from salvaged elements of the shipwreck
- Was falsely accused of liberating rebels from jail by a jealous rival
- Was put underneath 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 ebook on the species, however it’s out of print and appears inconceivable to seek out even in on-line secondhand bookstores. If (like me) you need to really feel dangerous about it, you could need to learn the evaluate of the ebook right here.
Even the evaluate has some attention-grabbing info – for instance, a significant 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, it’s a must to go additional North a bit later within the 12 months.
Lastly, there may be an attention-grabbing paper attempting to estimate the financial worth of a Steller’s Sea Eagle – on this case, a vagrant displaying up in North America. The eagle spent practically a month on the jap seaboard of the USA, attracting 1000’s of birdwatchers. Through an internet survey, these birdwatchers have been requested about their bills and their willingness to pay to see the eagle.
The consequence: 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 shopper surplus between $139,036 and $174,114.
Not dangerous.
Bonus pictures: One to bother these individuals who don’t like human gadgets in hen pictures …
… and one displaying an embarrassing second for an eagle, crashing into the ice.
