Dugong (redirected from Dugongs)

dugong: see sirenian.

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dugong

Large marine mammal (Dugong dugon, the sole living member of the family Dugongidae) that lives in shallow coastal waters from the Red Sea and eastern Africa to the Philippines, New Guinea, and northern Australia. It is 7–11 ft (2.2–3.4 m) long and usually weighs 500–800 lbs (230–360 kg). Its round, tapered body ends in a flipper with paired, pointed, horizontal branches. The forelimbs are rounded flippers; there are no hind limbs. The head blends into the body, and the snout is broad, square, and bristled. Dugongs live in pairs or in groups of up to six individuals. Once heavily hunted for their meat, hides, and oil, they are now protected throughout most of their range, though some populations remain in danger of extermination. See also manatee, sea cow.

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dugong

a whalelike sirenian mammal, Dugong dugon, occurring in shallow tropical waters from E Africa to Australia: family Dugongidae

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Dugong 

(Dugong dugon), an aquatic mammal, the sole representative of the genus Dugong of the order Sirenia. It normally attains a length of 2.5-3 m, with males weighing about 170 kg and females about 140 kg. The small and barely mobile head merges with the spindle-shaped trunk ending with a horizontal bilobate fin. The forelimbs are supple flippers. Of hind limbs only rudimentary pelvic bones, concealed in the muscles, remain. The coarse skin is dark leaden or brown in color and covered with sparse hairs. Both jaws have five or six molars on each side, cylindrical in form and lacking enamel; in addition, the males have two tusklike upper incisors 6-7 cm long.

The Dugong lives in the coastal waters of eastern Africa, southern Asia, the Moluccas, the Philippines, the Malay Archipelago, New Guinea, and Australia, sometimes entering the mouths of rivers. The Dugong lives in groups of three to six animals or in pairs and feeds on aquatic plant life. The female gives birth to a single offspring. It is hunted, but its numbers have greatly decreased.

O. L. ROSSOLIMO