A wildlife photographer has captured the unbelievable second a mom dugong and her calf got here up for air throughout their migration off the Australian coast — a uncommon feat to witness up shut as a result of animal’s notoriously elusive nature.
Western Australian resident Jake Mason, of Shark Bay Eco Tours, mentioned he is been fortunate sufficient to identify the “cows of the sea” of their pure a habitat a number of occasions because of his line of labor, however most individuals seldom get the prospect to witness the particular sight.
Mason took the images because the pair had been migrating from Monkey Mia to Dirk Hartog Island in Gascoyne area of Western Australia, to “follow the warm waters”.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Mason mentioned Shark Bay is dwelling to about 10 per cent of the world’s dugong inhabitants, individuals simply hardly see them.
“Basically, they do everything in their power to be not be found,” he instructed Yahoo. “There’s quite a few here, but they’re very elusive and they migrate throughout the year. So they go from the Monkey Mia side, all the way from the eastern part of the Gulf, all the way over to the western side.
“Sometimes we’ll go for weeks with out seeing them. Some days, we’ll see like 40 in a day. At this time of 12 months, they are much tougher to seek out.”
Dugongs loved by locals and visitors alike at Shark Bay
Mason said in his photos, the mum and her calf can be seen coming up for a breather, something the animals must do every three to seven minutes — roughly the same as a person.
“The solely time you actually see them collectively is when there is a mum and calf, until they’re migrating in a giant group,” Mason explained. “It’s one of many prime issues lots of our visitors come and see — or wish to see, a minimum of, not all of them get to.”
Dugongs can “swim fairly fast” — just over 40 kilometres an hour — and they’ve got “actually good listening to,” Jake said. “They hear boats, they simply scalp it and disappear,” he said.
“The interactions are often fairly sluggish, they’re onerous to trace. We bought a extremely good have a look at one which day, that one wasn’t too phased by us, however often we simply get a little bit of a glimpse within the distance. But on that day I bought a extremely good look.”
Dugongs are primarily found in warm coastal waters in the Indo-West Pacific region. Their range spans over 40 countries, with large populations near northern Australia, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf. They inhabit shallow, sheltered waters, often near seagrass beds, which are crucial to their diet.
Other areas with dugong populations include eastern Africa, the western Pacific Islands, and parts of Southeast Asia, though these populations are often smaller and more scattered due to habitat loss and other environmental pressures.
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