Animal - Dugong or Sea Cow feeding on sea grass - postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Dugong (or Sea Cow) feeding on sea grass  - photo by Pete Atkinson from BG Wildlife Photographer of the year competition
• Publisher:  BBC Wildlife Magazine / Natural History Museum, London
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  no
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

Please ask if you need any other information and I will do the best I can to answer.

Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one.

------------------------------------------------

Postage & Packing:

UK (incl. IOM, CI & BFPO): 99p

Europe: £1.60

Rest of world (inc. USA etc): £2.75

No additional charges for more than one postcard. You can buy as many postcards from me as you like and you will just pay the fee above once. (If buying postcards with other things such as books, please contact or wait for invoice before paying).

Payment Methods:

UK - PayPal, Cheque (from UK bank) or postal order

Outside UK: PayPal ONLY (unless otherwise stated) please.   NO non-UK currency checks or money orders (sorry).

NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

----------------------------------------------

Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

*************

The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a large marine mammal which, together with the manatees, is one of four living species of the order Sirenia. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century. It is also the only sirenian in its range, which spans the waters of at least 37 countries throughout the Indo-Pacific, though the majority of dugongs live in the northern waters of Australia between Shark Bay and Moreton Bay. The dugong is the only strictly marine herbivorous mammal, as all species of manatee use fresh water to some degree.

Like all modern sirenians, the dugong has a fusiform body with no dorsal fin or hind limbs, instead possessing paddle-like forelimbs used to manoeuvre. It is easily distinguished from the manatees by its fluked, dolphin-like tail, but also possesses a unique skull and teeth. The dugong is heavily dependent on seagrasses for subsistence and is thus restricted to the coastal habitats where they grow, with the largest dugong concentrations typically occurring in wide, shallow, protected areas such as bays, mangrove channels and the lee sides of large inshore islands. Its snout is sharply downturned, an adaptation for grazing and uprooting benthic seagrasses.

The dugong has been hunted for thousands of years for its meat and oil. Traditional hunting has great cultural significance throughout its range. The dugong's current distribution is reduced and disjunct, and many populations are close to extinction. The IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction, while the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species limits or bans the trade of derived products. Despite being legally protected in many countries, the main causes of population decline remain anthropogenic and include hunting, habitat degradation, and fishing-related fatalities. With its long lifespan of 70 years or more, and slow rate of reproduction, the dugong is especially vulnerable to extinction.

The word ""dugong"" derives from the Tagalog term dugong which was in turn adopted from the Malay duyung, both meaning ""lady of the sea"".^[3] Other common local names include ""sea cow"", ""sea pig"" and ""sea camel"".^[4]

Dugong dugon is the only extant species of the family Dugongidae, and one of only four extant species of the Sirenia order, the others forming the manatee family.^[5] It was first classified by Müller in 1776 as Trichechus dugon,^[6] a member of the manatee genus previously defined by Linnaeus.^[7] It was later assigned as the type species of Dugong by Lacépède^[8] and further classified within its own family by Gray^[9] and subfamily by Simpson.^[10]

Dugongs and other sirenians are not closely related to other marine mammals, being more related to elephants.^[11] Dugongs and elephants share a monophyletic group with hyraxes and the aardvark, one of the earliest offshoots of eutherians. The fossil record shows sirenians appearing in the Eocene, where they most likely lived in the Tethys Ocean. The two extant families of sirenians are thought to have diverged in the mid-Eocene, after which the dugongs and their closest relative, the Steller's sea cow, split off from a common ancestor in the Miocene. The Steller's sea cow became extinct in the 18th century. No fossils exist of other members of the Dugongidae.^[12]

Molecular studies have been made on dugong populations using mitochondrial DNA. The results have suggested that the population of Southeast Asia is distinct from the others. Australia has two distinct maternal lineages, one of which also contains the dugongs from Africa and Arabia. Limited genetic mixing has taken place between those in Southeast Asia and those in Australia, mostly around Timor.^[5] One of the lineages stretches all the way from Moreton Bay to Western Australia, while the other only stretches from Moreton Bay to the Northern Territory.^[11] However, there is not yet sufficient genetic data to make clear boundaries between distinct groups.^[5]

Dugongs are found in warm coastal waters from the western Pacific Ocean to the eastern coast of Africa,^[15] along an estimated 140,000 kilometres (86,992 mi) of coastline^[2] between 26° and 27° degrees to the north and south of the equator. Their historic range is believed to correspond to that of seagrasses from the Potamogetonaceae and Hydrocharitaceae families. The full size of the former range is unknown, although it is believed that the current populations represent the historical limits of the range,^[5] which is highly fractured.^[13] The dugong is the only strictly-marine herbivorous mammal, as all species of manatee utilise fresh water to some degree. Recorded numbers of dugongs are generally believed to be lower than actual numbers, due to a lack of accurate surveys. Despite this, the dugong population is thought to be shrinking,^[5] with a worldwide decline of 20 per cent in the last 90 years. They have disappeared from the waters of Hong Kong, Mauritius, and Taiwan, as well as parts of Cambodia, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam. Further disappearances are likely.^[11]

Populations of dugongs exist in the water of 37 countries and territories.^[11] In the late 1960s, herds of up to 500 dugongs were observed off the coast of East Africa and nearby islands. However, current populations in this area are extremely small, numbering 50 and below, and it is thought likely they will become extinct. The eastern side of the Red Sea is the home of large populations numbering in the hundreds, and similar populations are thought to exist on the western side. In the 1980s, it was estimated there could be as many as 4,000 dugongs in the Red Sea. The Persian Gulf has the second-largest dugong population in the world, inhabiting most of the southern coast,^[5] and the current population is believed to be around 7,500.^[17]

A highly isolated breeding population exists in the Gulf of Kutch, the only population remaining in western India. It is 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) from the population in the Persian Gulf, and 1,700 kilometres (1,056 mi) from the nearest population in India. Former populations in this area, centred on the Maldives and the Laccadive Islands, are presumed to be extinct. A population exists in the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka, but it is seriously depleted. A small population exists around the Nansei Shoto islands, and a population formerly existed off Taiwan.^[5] An endangered population of 50 or fewer dugongs survives around Okinawa.^[23]

type=printed postcards

theme=animals

sub-theme=dugong

period=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted