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Dugong

Whales, Dolphins & Dugong

Photo: (c) Eddie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY

Dugong dugon

Basic stats

Diet

Seagrasses, grazed from the seabed

Habitat

Warm, shallow coastal waters with seagrass meadows: bays, lagoons and mangrove channels

Size

Adults rarely over 3m long

Weight

Usually 250–900kg

The dugong, or sea cow, is a large, grey-brown marine mammal with a torpedo-shaped body, no dorsal fin and no hind limbs. Its front limbs are short, paddle-like flippers, and it swims with a notched, dolphin-like tail fluke, which tells it apart from the manatees. The snout is sharply turned down, an adaptation for feeding on seagrass on the seabed. Males grow a pair of short tusks at puberty (Wikipedia, general species account).

The dugong is the only strictly marine plant-eating mammal. Across its range it depends entirely on seagrass meadows, which limits it to warm, shallow coastal waters, especially wide, sheltered bays and mangrove channels; it can tolerate brackish water. Populations throughout its range have been reduced by hunting for meat and oil, drowning in fishing nets and loss of seagrass, and many are now small and isolated.

Quick answers

What does the Dugong eat?
Seagrasses, grazed from the seabed
What habitat does the Dugong live in?
Warm, shallow coastal waters with seagrass meadows: bays, lagoons and mangrove channels
How big is the Dugong?
Adults rarely over 3m long
How much does the Dugong weigh?
Usually 250–900kg
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