Top 15 Weirdest Animals in the World
#11 Dugong (Dugong dugon)
Facts
- Class: Mammals
- Order: Sea cows
- Family: Dugongidae
- Distribution: Indian Ocean, Western Pacific
- Habitat: Shallow, tropical costal waters
Adorable Floor Vacuum: What on Earth is a Dugong?
The chubby round-tailed sea cows (also known as manatees) are now familiar to almost everyone thanks to funny internet videos. But have you ever heard of a Dugong? This enormous, laid-back creature is closely related to manatees, yet its face looks quite a bit stranger. Its mouth ends in a large, horseshoe-shaped snout that resembles the nozzle of a giant floor vacuum!
The biggest difference from its famous relatives lies in its habitat: While manatees love to swim in the freshwater of rivers and lakes, the dugong primarily resides in salty seawater. Additionally, it has a different tail fin. Instead of being round like a spoon, it is deeply forked at the end – just like the fin of a dolphin or whale.
The Sea Cow: Tons of Grass for Breakfast
Dugongs are the only purely herbivorous mammals that live exclusively in the ocean. Their snout-like mouth is perfectly curved downward, allowing them to scour the seabed for their favorite food: seagrass. Like a living lawnmower, they spend hours plowing through the underwater meadows, leaving behind clearly visible bare patches in the sand.
Since seagrass doesn't provide a lot of nutrients, these gentle giants need to consume a significant amount. An adult dugong, which can weigh up to 400 kg, can munch through as much as 40 kg of fresh greens each day! To better grasp the tough roots in the sand, the dugong's upper lip is extremely flexible and covered with thick, sensitive whiskers.
The Origin of the Mermaid Legend
The Dugongs inspired ancient sailors' tales about beautiful mermaids and sirens. When a Dugong mother nurses her young, she sometimes holds it close to her body with her front flippers while peeking out of the water.
Lonely sailors, who spent months at sea, spotted these figures in the evening light from a distance. With a touch of imagination (and longing), they mistook the plump sea cows for mystical creatures. Consequently, biologists later named the order of these animals Sirenia.
Continue to spot 12: A real pokémon in the ocean!
On the next page, a tiny creature awaits you, looking so incredibly beautiful and quirky that it seems to have jumped straight out of an anime. It has blue wings, is called the "blue dragon," and loves to feast on highly toxic jellyfish to steal their venom as its own weapon! Click ahead now to meet the fascinating Blue Sea Slug!
Sources:
- Behaviour and buoyancy control in a shallow diving marine mammal, the dugong (Dugong dugon) (https://www.frontiersin.org)
- Ecological roles and importance of sea cows (Order: Sirenia): a review and prospectus (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Ecology and conservation of the sirenia: dugongs and manatees (https://www.tandfonline.com)
- Table of Contents:
- 0. Introduction
- 1. Longhorn Cowfish
- 2. Glass Frog
- 3. Sawfish
- 4. Fried Egg Jellyfish
- 5. Streaked Tenrec
- 6. Red-Lipped Batfish
- 7. Saiga
- 8. Spook Fish
- 9. Clearwing Moth
- 10. Musk Deer
- 11. Dugong
- 12. Blue Ocean Slug
- 13. Giant Isopod
- 14. Leafy Seadragon
- 15. Leaf-Tailed Gecko
