The dugong, is a marine mammal. They are also called a sea cow, they move very slowly and their main food source is seaweed. HABITAT: The Dugong is a marine animal so it lives in water. The Dugong lives in warm shallow waters of the Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, usually along the costal waters, and where the rivers meet the sea. Dugongs area found to live in the waters near Australia. The Dugongs habitat is in coastal waters, where there is seaweed, and food. APPEARANCE: The dugong is a greyish brown in colour,they have very stubby bodies, dugongs have tusks but female dugongs do not grow as much as the males do. The dougong has a tail vvery similar to a dolphin. Dugongs are approximately 3 metres long, and they usually weigh around about 400 kg. DIET: The dugongs diet consists of only seaweed, because dugongs are grass-eaters. They eat their food by walking using their front flippers along the sand, and rising to the surface to breathe. The dugong has a large cheeks, these large cheeks called jowls help push the sand away from the dugongs mouth , so when it eats, it never swallows sand. POPULATION: The dugong population is decreasing, it is estimated that there are around about 10,000 in the oceans around the Great Barrier Reef, and another 7,500 around the Persian Gulf. The dugong population is becoming smaller and quickly diminishing.WHY IS THE DUGONG ENDANGERED?: The dugongs are endangered, by many accidents, such as getting hit by boats or getting trapped and drowned in fishing nets. The dugong also has a lot of predators such as sharks, killer whales and crocodiles. But the biggest threat to the dugong population are humans, Humans are accidentally killing dugongs off, humans are also polluting the waters where dugongs live, this is causing their food source to die off. Humans also try to catch this animal because they believe it taste like a baby cow, otherwise known as a calf, but there are now laws stating that you are no longer to catch the dugongs. |
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