How much do Dugongs eat a day?
The dugong (Dugong dugon) is the only herbivorous marine mammal. A single adult dugong can grow up to three meters, weigh up to 500 kilograms and live for 70 years. Dugongs can remain underwater for 3 to 12 minutes while feeding and travelling. They can eat up to 40 kilograms of seagrasses per day.
How many kg of seagrass a dugong and a green turtle consume a day?
35 kilograms
How often do Dugongs eat?
Dugongs are primarily herbivorous, grazing on up to 30kg of seagrass a day. They eat both day and night, locating their food with the help of coarse, sensitive bristles on their upper lip.
What plants do Dugongs eat?
Dugongs have adapted a herbivorous lifestyle that largely revolves around the consumption of seagrass. They have the option to either feed superficially on the leaves or attempt to dig up the entire plant by the root. Less commonly, they will consume algae when seagrass cannot be found.
Do humans eat dugongs?
In addition, shark nets set on swimming beaches in Queensland netted some 800 dugongs between 1962 and 1999. During the period 1970–2009, Robards and Reeves (2011) recorded dugongs being used for human consumption in 34 countries. Today, the dugong is legally protected in most countries.
Can a manatee kill a human?
Not known to harm anything, they spend their days diving to dine on sea grasses and fresh water vegetation. But humans harm them with watercraft collisions and boat propellers that slice their skin.
Can Aboriginals hunt dugongs?
Despite being protected, dugongs and marine turtles can be legally hunted by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people under section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993, which operates to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples with a native title right to hunt, gather, collect and fish or conduct a cultural or …
Do Torres Strait Islanders eat dugong?
Archaeological evidence suggests that Torres Strait Islanders have hunted dugong for at least 4000 years, and the level of harvest is suspected to be sustainable because there is no evidence for population decline from aerial surveys over time [2,4].
Are turtles legal hunting?
The data shows that legal hunting of sea turtles is allowed in 42 countries or territories, including Australia, Japan and Mexico. Papua New Guinea is said to be responsible for more than 36 percent of the legally taken turtles every year.
What is the average lifespan of a dugong?
With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to extinction.
How long until dugongs are extinct?
With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to extinction….Dugong.
| Dugong Temporal range: Miocene-recent | |
|---|---|
| Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |