Thai conservationists hunt for dugong poop in race to save endangered marine mammal

Scientists are collecting poop samples to test for stress hormones and other health indicators in a bid to prevent the mammal’s extinction

Aidan Jonesin Bangkok

Thaiconservationists are sleuthing for clues to help save the country’s last herd of dugongs by testing the mammal’s poop for stress hormones, its microbiome and other health indicators to prevent the extinction of this beloved yet

critically endangeredsea creature.

But first they have to find the faeces – a green fist-sized ball consisting of the seagrass the gentle dugongs graze on daily in the coastal shallows of the Andaman Sea.

It is literally drop-in-the-ocean work for the teams using drones to spot dugongs – who number only around 200 – and then sending boats to reach areas where they may have defecated before the faeces can wash away.

Veterinarians and conservationists have collected just five samples so far – a small but crucial haul helping scientists build a database of the surviving creatures and identify other food formulas the dugong could adopt as its seagrass nourishment vanishes due to ocean warming.

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