But a week before the March 22 start of the celebration, no one could locate a single
sea cow to put on display.
Two
sea cow species live to this day, the dugong of the Indo-Pacific region and manatees of the Atlantic basin.
Other winners include a vet examining a
sea cow in Playa del Carmen in Mexico and a stork being tended to after injuring its beak in a traffic accident in Hungary.
The tracks are "All The Animals", "Mosquitoes", "Froggie Went A Courtin'" with Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, "Big Blue Whale", "Happy As a Clam", "Hummingbird", "
Sea Cow", "Possum", "Tofurky Song", "If You Go", "Animals in Concert", "My Butterfly", "Pony Boy", and "Wimoweh".
Having trammeled the environment in Venezuela, the oil industry moved on to the Middle East, where it encountered more mangroves and an aquatic mammal called the
sea cow or dugong, cousin of the Lake Maracaibo manatee.
In the threats to wildlife section, the authors detail some of the animals that have become extinct during the last several hundred years: "Steller's
sea cow: Formerly inhabiting the Pacific Coast from Japan to California, this sea-weed eating giant was hunted to extinction by 1768 (p.
Highlights include life-size models of an Albedosaurus, a Lambeosaurus, and a
sea cow, fleshed out on one side and skeletonized on the other; a Megalodon shark (the most accurate depiction ever created of this creature, which is the world's largest known predator); an Ankylosaur, based on fossil evidence discovered in the region (the most complete dinosaur fossil ever found in California); an arliculated walrus in one of the biggest free-standing cases known to be in any museum; a giant sloth; a swooping Pterodactyl with a 23-foot wingspan; and a floor-to-ceiling "fossil aquarium" with a huge mural--by world-famous paleoartist William Stout--sewing as a backdrop, depicting all of the animals that lived in the ocean during the Pliocene Age.
Some of these were spectacular large organisms, such as Steller's
sea cow, the Caribbean monk seal, and the great auk, whereas others, such as most of the fishes, invertebrates, and seaweeds on the list, are known primarily to specialists.
"I just wanted to sit in the corner and eat, not walk around going 'look how sexy I am' and trying to seduce all these men when I looked like some kind of
sea cow."
Species bear his name, including Steller's albatross, eider, jay, sculpin,
sea cow, sea eagle, and sea lion.