Читать книгу Diving Indonesia Periplus Adventure Guid онлайн

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The sperm whale (Physeter catodon), of Moby Dick fame, is a very different animal. These are toothed whales, which feed on giant squid and fish snatched from great depths. The sperm whale has a characteristic forward pointing spume and hump-like ridges rather than a dorsal fin on its back. Pygmy and dwarf sperm whales (Kogis) also inhabit Indonesian waters.

Dugong. It is very unlikely that a diver will see this rare animal. The dugong or sea cow (Dugong dugon) is a slow-moving animal, up to 2.5 meters long, that looks like a walrus without the tusks. There are only three other members of order Sirenia, manatees from Florida, the Amazon basin and West Africa.

The dugong is the only herbivorous marine mammal, and is strictly aquatic. The animals can eat 10 percent of their body weight a day in sea grasses, and are found mainly in sheltered bays where these plants grow.

Dugongs are threatened throughout their range, because they are slow-moving, easy targets for hunters—their tusks are used for cigaret holders—and because they take so long to reproduce. Calving takes place only once every 3-7 years, and dugongs take 15 years to mature.