Pallas's Cormorant

The species was first identified by Georg Steller in 1741 on Vitus Bering's disastrous second Kamchatka expedition. He described the bird as large, clumsy and almost flightless — though it was probably reluctant to fly rather than physically unable — and wrote they weighed 12 – 14 pounds, so that one single bird was sufficient for three starving men. Though cormorants are normally notoriously bad-tasting, Steller says that this bird tasted delicious, particularly when it was cooked in the way of the native Kamtchadals, who encased the whole bird in clay and buried it and baked it in a heated pit.

The Pallas's Cormorant is classified as Extinct (EX), there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died.

Pallas's Cormorant, has probably been extinct for some fifty years. Another indication of the antiquity of the family is shown by the fact that one species More