By: Isabelle P. Newman

Diet

Did you know the Dugong eats 1 pound of sea grass for every 10 pounds it weighs?

Example, if you were 70 pounds, you would have to eat 7 pounds of salad to keep up with a Dugong.

Diet

When a Dugong eats a piece of sea grass it must clean it by using its nose and flippers and shaking it wildly.

DietWhen a baby dugong

drinks it’s mom’s milk, the mom usually swims right beneath the surface, and sometimes she will suckle her calf and graze at the same time!

AppearanceDugongs look very,

very similar to Manatees but Dugongs have much bigger heads. The Dugong skin is grayish blue and shades of brown.

Appearance A Dugong has two very

tiny little holes on the top of its snout. These are called nostrils. The reason they are there (unlike a humans nose) is because sometimes a Dugong swims with just that part of their body sticking out. Also everybody needs sleep, so a Dugong sleeps with its nostrils sticking out of the water.

AppearanceDid you know over a

million years ago Dugongs used to live on land? Dugongs used to have front legs and back legs. But look! Look at them now! Now it seems so impossible to even know, to even think that they could of once had 4 legs.

AppearanceA Dugong has 24 teeth

to start it’s life with. As it gets older it looses lots of teeth. Even though a Dugong has lost most of it’s teeth it can still eat as well as before. When a baby Dugong reaches 10 to 12, two teeth that look like tusks grow in.

AppearanceWhen a Dugong is

born it is a pale creamy color but as it gets older and older it’s skin changes colors.

Appearance Dugongs look very,

very similar to Manatees but Dugongs have much bigger heads. The Dugongs skin is grayish brown.

Interesting FactsDid you know that

there are many differences between dugongs and manatees?

Manatees have round bodies, round tails. It uses its front flippers to grab food and no tusks. It lives in shallow water along the east coasts of North and South America.

Dugongs have slim bodies, forked tails and tusks and they live in coastal regions or in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Physical featuresWhen a Dugong

wants to stop swimming it holds out its flippers and then it slows down.(It also uses its flippers to steer.)

Physical featuresBecause Dugongs do

not have feathers like a bird or fur like a cat, how do they stay warm? A dugong has a thick layer of fat called blubber which makes heat stay in their bodies.

Physical featuresDid you know

Dugongs can do stunts under water? A Dugong can glide on its back, roll, summersault and stand on its head!

Physical featuresEven though most of

the time a Dugong swims slow, they can reach speeds of 5 miles per hour., and every ones and awhile they can top 15 miles pert hour.

HistoryLong ago Dugongs

used to be hunted for their meat, hides, oil and bones. Over the last 100 years Dugongs have been getting fewer and fewer. But now laws are made so we can help save them.

Daily lifeEvery day a Dugong

eats. A Dugong will swim to the seabed floor get something to eat.

HabitatDugongs like water

at least 60 degrees because they only have a 2 inch thick layer of blubber.

HabitatThe Dugong likes

warm by the shore of the south, pacific, Indian, and north pacific oceans. The habitat has protection from sharks but not from humans.

ConservationAccording to the

endangered species act Dugongs are endangered.