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Dugong — printable fact sheet
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Dugong
Dugong dugon
Dugong dugon is the only strictly marine mammal on Earth that eats nothing but plants, and unlike a manatee it never enters fresh water and never leaves the sea. Its closest living relatives are elephants, not whales, and the resemblance shows in the tusks: mature males erupt a …
Did you know?
- Dugongs are believed to be the origin of ancient sailor legends about mermaids due to their human-like features when seen from a distance.
- Dugongs are the most plausible origin of the mermaid legend, and Christopher Columbus's disappointed logbook note that the "mermaids" he saw were not as beautiful as painted almost certainly refers to sirenians. Australia holds the great majority of the world's dugongs, with the largest herds in Torres Strait, Shark Bay and along the Great Barrier Reef. A dugong can eat around 30 kg of seagrass a day and will fast-track its grazing across a meadow, cropping in long swathes. They can hold their breath for around six minutes and often stand on their tail with the head out of the water to look around.
What I learned
Draw the dugong
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