Their colouring is variable but is usually dull brownish gray and their thick skin is relatively smooth and sparsely covered with hairs. The front limbs which in an adult are about 35-45 cm in length, are modified into flippers that are used for propulsion by the young, but adults propel themselves by means of their fluke-like tail, similar to a dolphin, using the flippers only for steering.  

   Female Dugongs give birth underwater to a single calf at three to seven year intervals. The calf stays with its mother, drinking milk from her teats and following close by until one or two years of age. Dugongs reach adult size between 9 and 17 years of age.

 Dugong have nostrils near the top of their snouts and their mouths are adapted for browsing marine sea-grasses, hence their common name of ‘sea-cow’. When grazing on the sea-bed, the Dugong uses its flippers for "walking," and animals in captivity have also been seen to use their flippers to convey food to the mouth.

  Originally Dugongs were widely distributed around tropical seas from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba, to eastern Africa, Madagascar and many of the islands in the Indian Ocean, the southern and eastern coasts of Asia, and along the coast of Australia. These slow moving animals are very easy to hunt and their numbers have now declined dramatically. Dugongs are also threatened by accidental drowned in fish and shark nets. Habitat destruction is also leading to their demise as seagrass meadows are being destroyed by dredging and smothered by soil washed into the sea during heavy storms and cyclones. Now considered an endangered species, dugongs are listed under Appendix I of CITES. This means that there is a ban in the trade of dugong products (??)

  Dugongs occur in the shallow waters of coastal regions where there is an abundance of vegetation. Often they rest in deep water during the day and move toward the shore at night to feed in depths of 1-5 meters. Long-distance migrations have not been recorded but seasonal changes have been associated with the monsoons of Africa, southeastern Asia, and Australia and may reflect a response to rough weather and availability of food. 

  Within the Western Indian Ocean, Dugongs have been confirmed to currently occur in Madagascar, Mozambique and the Comores. Unfortunately in all of these areas they are still actively hunted despite their ‘endangered’ status. They were first recorded in the lagoon of Aldabra 1975 and 1976 where they were found in pairs or groups. For many years there were no further records of them at Aldabra but they were recorded again in 2001 and 2002 in the lagoon and by the fringing reef. The most recent sightings have been this October of a large specimen by the mangrove area of Bras Monsieur Claremont and a much smaller one of around 2m at Ile Esprit.

Sporadic sightings of Dugongs have been reported since 2000 within the  Aldabra atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

  The origins of Aldabra’s Dugong are not clear but the Indian Ocean current gyre flows clockwise to the west past Northern Madagascar to Aldabra continuing west to Africa;  here it meets the East African Coastal current which flows north while a part is deflected south down through the Mozambique channel. Bearing this in mind it is more likely that they originate from Northern Madagascar rather than Mozambique or the African coast. The recent sighting of such a small Dugong in Aldabra is however very important as it is unlikely that a mall animal would survive a crossing from Madagascar to Aldabra so this may in fact be the re-kindling of Aldabra’s Dugong population!