Dugong (Sealife by CollectA)

Review and images by Suspsy; edited by bmathison1972

The only purely herbivorous marine mammal, the dugong (Dugong dugon) forms the order Sirenia along with the three species of manatee. It is believed to have been the inspiration for the legend of mermaids, although I reckon the sailors who sighted a dugong back in those days had to have been either extremely lonely or extremely inebriated to mistake its visage for that of an alluring woman.

CollectA’s 2016 dugong measures 15 cm (6″) long with a 5 cm (2″) wide tail (approximately 1:20 in scale). Its main colour is a glossy medium grey with a slightly lighter underbelly, faint pink markings on the mouth, throat, and shoulder joints, and beady black eyes. Hardly exciting, but precisely what a real dugong is coloured like. The flippers are swept back and the tail is angled to the left, although perhaps mine is simply warped.

Most of the dugong’s skin is perfectly smooth, but there are some slight wrinkles along the flanks and on the throat. The large nostrils are tightly closed and there are tiny ear holes visible on the sides of the head. The small round genital slit on the belly is hard to see at first due to it being located right underneath the printed CollectA logo, but it confirms that this individual is a male.

Aside from its whale-like tail flukes, which is quite unlike the round tails of manatees, the most distinguishing feature on this dugong is its enormous, triangular upper lip covered in tiny bumps. On a real dugong, these bumps would be sprouting tiny bristles. Dugongs feed mainly on sea grass, hence their nickname “sea cows.” They usually weigh around 453 kg (1,000 lbs), although the record specimen weighed more than twice that. Their only natural predators are killer whales, sharks, and saltwater crocodiles.

Overall, this is a very nice dugong figure, and a nice bit of variety for one’s marine mammal collection. Recommended.