Dugongs are mammals, which means they breathe air — they must come to the surface every few minutes to take a breath. They are closely related to elephants, which surprises most people. Scientists discovered the connection by studying their bones and DNA. Looking at a dugong's thick, wrinkled skin, a faint family resemblance to an elephant is actually quite easy to imagine.
A dugong can eat up to 40 kilograms of seagrass in a single day. They root around in the seabed with their flexible, downturned snouts, leaving behind distinctive bare trails through the grass called 'feeding trails'. These trails are so distinctive that scientists can spot them from aeroplanes and use them to count how many dugongs are living in an area.
Kuwait and Bahrain together host one of the largest dugong populations outside Australia. The shallow, warm waters of the Gulf and the rich seagrass beds make it perfect habitat. Dugongs are shy and gentle; they move slowly through the water, often in pairs or small family groups. They can live for 70 years or more, growing old in the same shallow seas.
Dugongs are vulnerable to extinction because they reproduce very slowly — a female has only one calf every three to seven years. This means that if many dugongs are harmed, the population takes a very long time to recover. Kuwait has established marine protected areas where boats travel slowly and dugongs can feed without disturbance.