Because the female dugong occasionally has the habit of holding her young out of the water to breastfeed, she is mistaken for a mermaid. In addition, dugong is also called manatee, mermaid and Nanhai cattle. Its maximum length is 3.3 meters, its figure is spindle-shaped, and its back skin is smooth and delicate. In addition, mermaids are distributed intermittently in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Dugong is a marine herbivorous mammal, and Dugong is the only vegetarian animal in the ocean. Because it needs to surface to breathe regularly, it is often regarded as a "mermaid". Dugong is one of the oldest marine animals in the world. It is a national first-class protected animal and one of the endangered species in China.

Mermaid image

The familiar mermaid image originated from Lorelei, a beautiful mermaid often mentioned in German legends and poems. She often appeared on the Rhine River when it was dark, confusing the passing boatmen with her beautiful appearance of Leng Yan and her sad and moving songs, distracting them, losing their way and finally sinking into the river.

Mermaid's upper body is human (mostly female) and the lower body is fish's body, which is the basic form. At that time, people probably misunderstood dugong, a mammal living in today's ocean, as a monster, so it was widely circulated, but this statement has no factual basis. However, in art, literature or painting, it is often used as a metaphor symbol with high credibility.

Mermaids are mostly used to symbolize very unfortunate things, such as the mermaid in Andersen's fairy tales. In most literary works, mermaids have a tragic ending, and they are not happy in the end. Incidentally, although the familiar mermaid sculpture has only one tail fin in the lower body, in ancient western paintings, mermaids usually have two tail fins, which is quite incredible.

The above content is referenced from Baidu Encyclopedia-Dugong.