Development and Application of Conventional and Satellite Radio Tracking Techniques for Studying Dugong Movements and Habitat Use

摘要

Techniques were developed for tracking individual dugongs using buoyant, tethered, conventionalnand satellite radio transmitters, and applied to six dugongs caught off the North Queensland coast.nThe dugongs (one immature, one pubertal, and four mature males) were caught by bull-dogging ornhoop-netting and tracked for between 1 and 16 months. All spent most of their time in the vicinity ofninshore seagrass beds using overlapping home ranges (MAP 0.95) of 4 to 23 km2. The only dugong tonundertake long-distance movements was the pubertal male, which journeyed between core areas in twonbays about 140 km apart three times in 9 weeks, completing the journey in as little as 2 days. One ofnthe adult animals made several journeys of about 10 km up the tidal reaches of a creek. These resultsnsupport the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's policy of conserving dugongs by giving a highnlevel of protection to some inshore seagrass beds that support large numbers of animals. The relativenmerits of conventional and satellite telemetry for tracking dugongs are discussed.