Boaters stunned when baby ocean mammal appears in Indonesia. See rare sight
Off the coast of a small island in southern Indonesia, boaters watched the waves as some marine mammals approached the boat. They recognized one of the animals, but the others — including a baby — left them in awe.
A video shows the first-of-its-kind sighting for the area.
Engky Bain, a member of the Kabola Fishermen’s Communication Forum, joined a small group of people to go boating off Mali Beach in early October after hearing reports of some unusual animal activity, World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Indonesia said in an Oct. 10 news release.
Soon enough, the boaters saw a group of dugongs, also known as sea cows, swimming toward them.
A roughly 1-minute-long video, shared by WWF-Indonesia in a Facebook post, shows the dugongs approaching the boat. Two large dugongs swim quite close to the boat while a third baby dugong stays further back.
The three dugongs interact and almost seem to play together before disappearing from view, the footage shows.
Local wildlife experts identified one of the animals as Mawar, or Mawardi, a male dugong regularly seen around Mali Beach, WWF-Indonesia said.
The other dugongs — a baby and an adult female — had not been seen in the area and were a first-of-its-kind sighting for Mali Beach, the organization said.
Officials described the sighting as rare and an encouraging sign for local marine conservation efforts, including the projects promoting seagrass growth, a key food source for dugongs.
Dugongs are related to manatees and, like manatees, are herbivores feeding on marine plants, according to Oceana. Dugongs, however, live exclusively in saltwater habitats. They can reach about 13 feet in length and about 600 pounds in weight. Dugongs are an at-risk species, protected throughout their range but threatened by habitat loss, boat collisions and “accidental capture.”
WWF-Indonesia said it plans to continue monitoring marine life off Mali Beach and continue seagrass conservation efforts.
Mali Beach is on Alor Island, a small island in southern Indonesia closer to the northern coast of Australia than Jakarta, the country’s capital.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release and Facebook post from WWF-Indonesia.
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 9:54 AM with the headline "Boaters stunned when baby ocean mammal appears in Indonesia. See rare sight."
