Dugongs inhabit coastal marine zones in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Unlike manatees, they never venture into fresh water. More to come...
Elandra,
our Dugong Ambassador (scientific name Dugong dugon), is named
after an Aboriginal word meaning "Lives by the Sea". She represents
the only living species of dugong, which is widely distributed in both the
Indian and Pacific Oceans. Although most of the research has been done in
Australia, dugongs are found from the southeast coast of Africa and west coast
of Madagascar, north to the Arabian peninsula, east to India, Thailand,
Indonesia, Papua-New Guinea, the Philippines and as far north as Japan. Dugongs
are quite different from manatees and are actually more closely related to the
extinct Steller's sea cow than to any living species of manatee. They are never
found in fresh water, but spend all their time in salt water where they feed on
sea grasses. Dugongs are easy to distinguish from manatees by their
"whale-like" flukes in place of the typical "paddle-like"
manatee tail. Dugongs also have tusks, which are absent in all the manatee
species. They may live to be greater than 70 years old in the wild, but are
threatened by habitat degradation and other environmental impacts.