The nickname "sea cow" definitely fits the dugong. This aquatic mammal spends most of its time tugging on seabed grasses with its lips, chewing them up and swallowing more than 200 pounds of food a day. Unlike most land cows, which live in safe pastures, the dugong is always alert for enemies, which it detects with its acute hearing. If threatened, several dugongs will group together like a huge offensive football line to scare away a predator, and even stage a counter-attack to drive the enemy away for good.
Lip Service: The dugong eats mostly sea grasses that grow in shallow waters by the coast, munching as much as 220 pounds per day. The mammals grips the grass with rough pads on its lower lip, then pulls them from the seabed with its prehensile (gripping) upper lip.
Good Listener: Though this animal has tiny ears (small openings with no ear flaps), its hearing is superb. The dugong can hear the faintest sounds from up to 300 feet away, and will whistle loudly to other dugongs if it senses danger.
We're Not Shark Food[]
A dugong mows down a bed of seaweed.
Crowds of dugongs sometimes gather around favorite feeding spots, but these aquatic mammals usually ignore each other- unless an enemy shows up. Dugongs have been seen joining together when a predator, such as a shark, enters nearby waters and confronting the potential predator in a "showdown." If the shark doesn't swim away, the dugongs swim towards it as a group and try to drive it off. If the shark still sticks around, several dugongs might even attack, biting at the shark's fins until it goes away.
Slow & Steady: The dugong leads a slow-paced life, usually swimming at speeds no faster than 6 miles per hour. If a lone dugong spots a predator, it can flap its powerful tail fast enough to escape the danger at 12 miles per hour.
Seasonal Swimmer: Like its cousin, the manatee, this aquatic mammal hates cold water. During winter, the dugong will make a trip of up to 100 miles to reach a tropical coast for the season.
Power Line[]
- A group of dugongs feed individually on tough sea grasses near the coast. They feel safe because their bulk alone is usually enough to discourage predators.
- Not all predators, though. A hungry tiger shark shows up, and the dugongs whistle to signal each other to gather and face the shark as a team.
- The dugongs form a solid line and and begin to swim towards the advancing enemy. Caught off-guard, the tiger shark backs off so it doesn't have to face all the dugongs at once.
Trivia[]
- The card's front illustration is also used in the Wildlife Explorer series, for the Dugong's profile. The main difference is the lack of the water on the Weird 'N Wild's version of the illustration (by the Dugong's head where the bubbles are), and the image is flipped. Otherwise, they are the same.
- The back-left image of the dugong foraging and the "Power Line" illustrations are also shared; titled "Safety in Numbers", there is an additional illustration of them counter-attacking the shark.
- The dugong's order, Sirenia, comes from the mythical Sirens.
- The dugong is featured in both Common Ground and It's All Relative! on Monster Mania 98.