What is the National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea?
The Dugong is the official National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea. It is also known as Sea Cow, which is closely related to the manatee but it is more closely related to an elephant. The Dugong, the National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea, Dugong, which can be seen in warm coastal waters of Red Sea, East Africa, Australia, Japan and Philippines and in other countries in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, they can live in fresh, brackish, and saline water. It is very much popular with the Papua New Guinea’s people and therefore designated as the national marine mammal of Papua New Guinea.
National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea Facts—
- Common Name: Dugong and also known as Sea Cow.
- Scientific Name: Dugong dugon
- Color: Dugongs mainly gray color but somewhat it may found in brownish gray.
- Length: Eight to eleven feet long.
- Weight: Around thousands of pounds.
- Diet: They are truly vegetarian and prefer seagrasses, freshwater vegetation. The dugongs are eating the leaves of most plants, which can be manipulated by their upper lip.
- Cubs: 1 pup a year
- Lifespan: around 70 years
The National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea, the Dugong is a large marine mammal, which has an egg-shaped head, flippers, and a flat tail. They have a tail with flukes, like a whale, and flippers. They do not have a dorsal fin like a shark. They have a wide flat nose, small eyes, and small ears. Dugongs feature a gray pelage, or coat when it matured, which turns brown with weathering. The average length of Dugong is in between 2.7–3m, which weighs 200–500 kg. The largest Dugong reported founding 2000 lbs in weight and 11 ft long.
The females are generally larger than males. They are also known as sea cows. The name is apt, due to their large physique; slow moving, lolling character; and tendency to be eaten by other animals. Dugongs may seem like unwieldy creatures, they can swim slowly but charmingly. The National marine mammal of Papua New Guinea, the Dugongs frequently swim alone or in pairs. Dugongs are a social mammal species and are seen in groups anecdotal from 2 to 200 individuals but seagrass beds cannot support large groups of dugongs for extended periods of time.
Smaller groups usually consist only of mother and calf pair. They may migrate long distances in order to find a specific seagrass bed, but they may also inhabit a single range for most of their life. Dugongs are a semi-nomadic species. Itinerant is driven by the quantity and quality of their primary food source, seagrass, they move on to the next seagrass bed if the running bed is exhausted.
Therefore the communication system is very important among individuals. They have two primary methods of communication using which are sound and vision. Dugongs use chirps, whistles, barks and other sounds that echo underwater in order to communicate. Every sound has own amplitude and frequency that differentiates the signal of which implies its probable purpose.
Papua New Guinea’s National marine mammal, the Dugongs are called bulls of its male while the females are called cows. There are more than a dozen bulls followed a cow during mating time. The group of bulls is called a mating herd. If the male has mated, he has not taken any part in the caring of young. The female Dugong is pregnant for about 12 months. They give birth to a single calf, which occurs in under water. The mother helps the calf get to the water’s surface for breathing, and within the hour the calf will be able to swim on its own. Male dugong will develop tusks during puberty, at the age of 12 and 15 years. Females usually do not have visible tusks.
Reference:
https://a-z-animals.com › A-Z Animals › Animals › Dugong
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/d/dugong/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong
animaldiversity.org/accounts/Dugong_dugon/
