Extinct Species and Where They Lived: What Historical Ecologists Are Doing on Bering Island

This year, a scientific team of ecologists from the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) completed the field season on the Commander Islands. They are currently actively processing the collected scientific data and planning new stages of studying the ecosystem of our unique islands, including extinct species. Aleutskaya Zvezda journalists spoke with the team leader, Arkady Borisovich Savinetsky, Head of the Historical Ecology Laboratory at IEE RAS, and his colleagues to discuss the habitat of the Steller's sea cow and whether it truly became extinct due to humans. The truth is that the Steller's cormorant was flightless, and how the Commander Islands differ from all the other islands in the Aleutian chain.

The interview is available in the PDF version of the newspaper.