A quantitative analysis of the stomach contents of an individual female dugong (Dugong dugon) caught
by fishermen in February 1991 in the coastal waters of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, is presented. Of the
total dry weight of digesta (about 3.4 kg), 98.9% consisted of seagrass material. Rhizome and root
material of smaller pioneering genera (i.e. Halophila, Halodule, Cymodocea) accounted for 71.5%
of the total dry weight. Enhalus acoroides dominated among leaf material (about 50%), but its
contribution to the total biomass of the stomach contents was only 13.5%. Rhizome material of
Enhalus and Thalassia was absent. The amount of sediment in the stomach was negligible. The results
are compared with those from similar studies, and the implications for possible feeding selectivity
are discussed.
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