Dugong (Dugong dugon)

Description

The Dugong is a gentle 3m long, grey brown bulbous marine mammal with a flattened fluked tail. Like whales, they do not have any dorsal fin, forelimbs modified into paddle like flippers and distinctive head shape. The broad flat muzzle and mouth are angled down to enable ease of grazing along the seabed (See image--my first attempt to illustrate, after my work for the record sheets during my college days!). Eyes and ears are small reflecting the animal's lack of reliance on these senses.

Distribution & Habitat

In India the dugongs are known to exist along the Gulf of Mannar coast and along the Palk Bay, apart from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These are places where the sea is shallow and their feeding grounds, seagrass beds exist over large areas. They prefer wide shallow bays and areas protected by large inshore islands. Vagrant animals will occasionally appear as far south as Kanniyakumari, in Tamil Nadu. Dugongs are legally protected by the Indian Government, and all the Commonwealth Nations. With less than 80,000 existing in the wild, their populations are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Food & Feeding

They are purely vegetarian, feeding exclusively on seagrasses, cropping the leaves and roots by using their broad muzzle to move the food into the mouth. Dugongs tend to occur in groups or herds and their movement over an area can be followed by the sand plume disturbances to the sea floor.

Breeding

Like their close relatives, the manatees in America, female dugongs in season, attract the attention of a number of males, one or two of which will eventually mate with her. One young is born after a gestation period of 12-14 months and will continue to suckle from the mother for about 18 months. They may remain with the female for a number of years, as she will not calve again for periods of between 2.5 to 7 years. This low reproductive rate has implications for their conservation worldwide and leaves them vulnerable to dramatic declines due to the impact of human activities.

Threatened
Today, thanks to several unplanned development activities, that occur along the two "under developed" districts of Tamil Nadu, viz., Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi, the region is degrading more than ever before. Add to this, the trawl-fishing activities along practiced by the fishermen in these region have litterally scrapped the seabed off their food, the seagrass.

A Greenpeace Video on Dugong


Dugong Feeding


Something for the Kids
A cute cartoon video with a song on Dugong. Although the song calls it ugly and says also called Manatee, (they are two different species) and give only the 3rd prize in a Miss Sea World Competition among sea-creatures, it's worth watching and probably with a little change in words to make it positive, teachers could teach the song as a nursery rhyme. Something I tried would read like...:

Dugong... dugong
It's the cow of the sea
Sea.... sea... SEA...!

Dugong... dugong
It's also locally known in Tamil as
Aavuliya... aaaahhhh...

It doesn't have wings
That would be silly
B'coz, it doesn't
Live in the Treeee
Compared to the Dolphin...
it's quite...pretty

Dugong... dugong
It's the cow of the sea
Dugong... dugong
It's quite the queen of the sea!