Dugong

• IUCN: Vulnerable (Internationally) / Endangered (East Indian Ocean?)
• Other names: Sea Cow
• Swahili name: Nguva
• Length: 2.5-3.5m
• Weight: 250-400kg
• Life expectancy: 70 years
• Abundance: Indian Ocean and western Pacific, tropical and subtropical waters
• Occurance: Year-round
• Primary prey: Seagrass
• Conservation status: An estimated 300-400 in East Africa.
• Quick key identification: A fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs. The flippers are paddle like and have a fluked, dolphin-like tail. Brown-grey colour. Unique cleft upper lips with a snout sharply downturned. Molar teeth are simple and peg-like with up to 30 on the lower and upper jaw.

The only member of the Dungongidae family and its closest living relatives are the manatees. Like all sea cows, the dugong is herbivorous. Primarily grazes on sea grasses. Unlike the manatee, the dugong never enters freshwater and therefore the only exclusively marine mammal that is herbivorous. Its brain size is small in comparison to its body and believed to be so as it does not need to complex hunting strategies to hunt prey. Generally surfaces to take a breath every few minutes using the paired nostrils on the top of its head. Graceful swimmers. They were relatively common until the 1970s in East African coastal waters. Now they are rare and to extinction locally. It is estimated that about 20-50 live in Kenya up in the Lamu-Kiunga archipelago and down in the south by Gazi-Msambweni-Shimoni coasts. Other sightings which are not all that common, show that there are groups along the East African coast where there are slightly higher numbers giving hope that there could be more than perceived though not enough to be out of insecurity.

• A fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs.
• The flippers are paddle-like.
• fluked, dolphin-like tail,
• a unique skull and teeth. Its snout is sharply downturned,
• Gray in colour
• The molar teeth are simple and peg-like with up to 30 on the lower and upper jaw