TPO 34: Extinction of sea cows

In this set of materials, the article and the lecturer are both discussing the topic of sea cows. However, the lecturer disagrees with the ideas in the article, offering several reasons to oppose the article.

First, the reason is associated with Siberian people. Although the article claims that the sea cows were overhunted by Siberian People because the sea cows were a good source of food in harsh environment, the lecturer states that the sea cows were massive creatures and only one sea cow can feed Siberian people for months. Therefore, the Siberian people didn't have to hunt sea cows a lot and didn't cause their extinction.

Second, the lecturer refutes the article by mentioning the whales. While the article points that the extinction of sea cows was caused by the ecosystem disturbances which cause food decline. The lecturer says that if the ecosystem could influence the sea cows, it can also influence the whales. However, there were no decline of whale's population, the article's argument is no convincing.

Third, the article states that the extinction was caused by European fur trader. However, the lecturer points that the sea cow's population were already small when the European fur trader arrived. Thus, the decline of sea cows was caused long before Europeans arrived. The article's statement is wrong.