the.com/dugong
a thousand-pound vegetarian mermaid that grazes the seafloor like an underwater cow.
means A large, slow-moving marine mammal of warm coastal waters that feeds on seagrass, related to the manatee and recognizable by its dolphin-like tail and downturned snout.
from From Malay 'duyung,' meaning roughly 'lady of the sea' or 'sea creature,' which passed into European languages in the 18th century via naturalists' accounts. The word likely fed the very mermaid legends the animal is blamed for: sailors glimpsing a nursing dugong cradling its calf at the surface saw, or wanted to see, a woman of the waves.
- Mermaid myth
- Sailors mistook these for mermaids at sea
- Sea cow
- Closest living relative is the elephant
- Grass eater
- Survives almost entirely on seagrass meadows
- Long life
- Can live up to 70 years
- Slow movers
- Cruise at about ten kilometers per hour
red sea dugong population — approximately 4,000 individuals in egyptian waters, largest remaining population
shark bay dugongs — western australia's seagrass meadows support ~10,000 dugongs, world's second-largest population
okinawa dugong — critically endangered subspecies with fewer than 50 individuals remaining in japanese waters