Sea Cow, Sea Pig and Sea Camel

Sea Cow, Sea Pig and Sea Camel

These animals are plump, grey, streamlined creatures that propel themselves slowly, using a crescent-shaped tail and paired flippers. They are almost naked of hair and have a blunt nose, small eyes and lack external ears. Like whales and dolphins they never leave the water. They are found throughout the shallow warmer coastal waters of the Indian Ocean from northern Australia to Mozambique and occasionally venture into KwaZulu-Natal. Dugongs are the only strictly marine mammals that feed primarily on plants. They browse on seagrasses (flowering plants which are distinct from seaweeds). Dugongs dig up the nutritious rhizomes of seagrasses using a horseshoe-shaped disc at the end of the snout.

What seafarers of old called mermaids were probably dugongs or manatees, sea creatures with human-like faces and mammary glands. The name of the scientific order , Sirenia, is derived from the mythical sirens of Greek folklore who lured sailors to their deaths.The largest species, Steller’s sea cow, occurred in the cold north Pacific and fed on kelp. It was hunted to extinction by 1768.

The Sea Cow is extinct since 1768.

The Sea Cow was the largest marine mammal. It looked like a manatee and a dugong but much-larger.Some grew to be as long as 35 feet.

The Sea Cow lived near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

Captain Bering and his crew was stranded in Alaska, in the winter They killed many of the Sea Cows for their meat and hides. Then other visitors continued to kill them. They used the meat for food and their hides for boat covers and shoe leather.

The Sea Cow lived in very cold waters.

Sea Cows had no teeth. They ate seaweed and marine algae. Sea Cows lived in groups. The Sea Cow was very large and moved very slowly which-made them very easy to catch .