What in the hell is a dugong??

Honestly, how many times in your adult life did you ever say, "I never knew that animal existed!" Maybe when you saw a zebroid (half donkey and/or horse with a zebra). But really, take a look at the dugong (below) and tell me, when did you ever hear of or see a picture of this guy?

Front

side view (from worldvoyage.com)

 I swear these are real pictures! There are plenty more of them online. Don't feel bad for not having heard about them if you're as shocked as I am! I used to surf, scuba dive and I am rather obsessed with animals and I still had never heard of them before last night. 

Some info: Apparently dugongs are the only living representatives of the Dugongidae family, though their cousins the manatees are also related on what biologists call the "order" level. They live off of the coast of 37 different countries and are as big as 660 lbs. They were even mentioned in the Bible as sea cows. Dugongs are total herbivores, really liking a particular type of sea grass, and have distinctive dolphin-like tails. They're hunted for their blubber and meat, but mostly get hurt by natural predators and from boats running into them as they graze in shallow waters.

They are really crazy looking creatures like a cross between an elephant and a manatee, but they're kind of a missing-link cute. The sad part is, of course like everything great and wonderful in the ocean, they are threatened. Their major food source, this supposedly tasty sea grass, is slowly dying off under the thumb of industrial and agricultural waste. 

To learn more about the dugong visit the National Geographic site. Go dugong!