Dugongs

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Nature, Wildlife, Biodiversity, Biological Evolution, Global Change, Climate Change

Ed Hessler

The March 2024 Smithsonian Magazine identified the Dugong as a Hero of the Wild.

They are known as "'sea cows'," writes Danna Staaf " thanks to their grazing habits, consuming up to 85 pounds of seagrass a day." Staaf describes their changing geographic distribution. It is a result of "coastal development and pollution."

Staaf reports that the "largest remaining group comprises about 300 dugongs." The challenge of counting smaller groups is the cost of aerial surveys. The new technology of off-the-shelf drones has been used by "Mozambican researcher Damboia Cossa a graduate student at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden" to count them indirectly using' ' feeding trails'." She also had to train "a machine learning model to identify them." A list of her publications may be found at the previous link.

Because they are food specialists they are under a variety of threats as their essential habitat is encroached on and destroyed.

It is a short story about one of the world's lesser known species to many living in the Western Hemisphere. It includes a full page spread of this lovely animal. And if you think of manatees when you look at the photograph, the highlighted link, "Dugong," tells you all about that.