Strayed dugong calf rescued, kept in resort pool

PETALING JAYA: A strayed dugong calf has been captured and confined by the Fisheries Department since Thursday in a rescue operation, 10 days after it was first sighted by a diver in the waters of Pulau Kapas, Terengganu.

Held in a resort swimming pool on nearby Pulau Gemia, the female baby dugong, named Puteri Kapas, is bottle-fed with goat milk and monitored round the clock. This is the first time a dugong was found in the state.

Aquaria KLCC curator Darren Chow, who learnt of the sighting, had gone to the island on Wednesday and found the calf clinging to a boat, a sign of the marine mammal seeking comfort and mistaking the hull of the boat as its mother.

“It was very weak when it was brought to the resort. We believed that it had not been feeding for at least 10 days,” he said yesterday.

MUM FIXATION: The strayed dugong calf clinging on to the hull of a boat in the waters off Pulau Kapas. — Pic courtesy of Choo Chee Kuang

He said the department was contemplating whether to keep the animal in an enclosure at sea or bring it to an on-shore facility.

It is learnt that the department’s Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) had despatched several enforcement officers to the scene to ensure that fishing boats steer clear of the area before it was captured on Thursday.

Tumec director Kamaruddin Ibrahim could not be reached for comments.

Fisheries department resource management head Ahmad Saktian Langgang said a statement would be issued when a decision is reached next week.

Chow said Aquaria KLCC is prepared to receive Puteri Kapas and rehabilitate it until it was ready to be released to the wild.

“The animal is too young to be left unattended and the best place is a facility like Aquaria which has the immediate facility to care for the dugong. We may not have a dugong specialist but we have marine biologists with experience handling other marine species which will be useful,” he said.

Chow is concerned that Puteri Kapas would be subjected to excessive stress as the pool is a public area in the resort and it would be a challenge to keep curious visitors at bay.

He said while conservationists were against the idea of rehabilitating dugong in captivity, fearing that it would grow too attached to its human handler and pose difficulties later, he said the method had been proven successful in Australia.

“In Indonesia, the Sea World in Jakarta had successfully raised four orphaned calves. We had been in touch with the curator Rika Sudranto who advised us on the general husbandry,” said Chow.

Chow said two persons were needed during the feeding session; one would act as a surrogate mother by allowing the animal to clasp its flippers around the person’s waist while another would hold the bottle.

The calf initially rejected the infant formula fed to it but took to goat milk and was given 300ml during each feeding session every three hours.

It is understood that fisheries officials want to ensure that Puteri Kapas would not meet the fate of Si Tenang, a male calf stranded in Pasir Gudang, Johor in 1999. Si Tenang died shortly after its release.

source: The Star Online
date: August 27, 2006
by: Hilary Chiew


* Note: However Puteri Kapas, the baby dugong died 3 weeks after being rescued.