Abstract
The seagrass beds at Muk Island and Talibong Island in Thailand are important areas for dugong (Dugong dugon) feeding and reproduction. We used opportunistic observations during aerial surveys to investigate dugong mating behavior in shallow water areas near Talibong Island on three different days. The mating pattern was categorized by five stages: (1) following: the male followed the female, (2) approaching and stimulating: the male approached and muzzled the female, (3) pairing: both male and female swam in parallel, ventral to ventral or dorsal to dorsal side, (4) mounting: the male copulated with the female, and (5) separating: the male and female swam in different directions. Parental care of calves included one observation of a cow embracing her neonatal calf by the flippers.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by a grant from the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Thailand. Thanks to Had Chao Mai National Park for providing facilities, including the landing of aircraft and the microlight pilot Mr. Nimit Sitthiroj for help with the dugong surveys. We thank Professor Helene Marsh for the valuable comments and linguistic improvement on the manuscript. We also thank Dr. Ellen Hines and anonymous reviewers for constructive comments.
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Communicated by S. Nishida.
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Adulyanukosol, K., Thongsukdee, S., Hara, T. et al. Observations of dugong reproductive behavior in Trang Province, Thailand: further evidence of intraspecific variation in dugong behavior. Mar Biol 151, 1887–1891 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0619-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0619-y