Name: 儒艮只在海草茂盛的地方生存… (Dugongs Survive Only Where Seagrass Thrives…)
Uploaded: 2026-01-23T17:10:28.000Z
Duration: 17 min 15 s

Shimmering between myth and mystery, mermaids have captured people's imaginations since the dawn of civilization.

介於神話與神祕之間，人魚自文明伊始便擄獲了人們的想像。

Tales of half human, half fish beings echo across cultures and time.

半人半魚的傳說，跨越文化與時空迴盪。

Glamorous symbols of danger or salvation, mermaids are mirrors of human desire and fear.

人魚是危險或救贖的迷人象徵，映照著人類的渴望與恐懼。

Untouchable yet familiar, they embody the ocean's mysteries.

遙不可及卻又似曾相識，牠們體現了海洋的奧祕。

But are they figments of the imagination?

Or echoes of something forgotten beneath the waves?

抑或是海面下被遺忘之物的迴響？

In modern day Qatar, groundbreaking scientific discoveries could shed light on the origins of these legends, as they contribute to a better understanding of a shy, gentle creature rarely seen by humans.

在現代卡達，劃時代的科學發現，或許能為這些傳說的起源帶來啟示，同時也讓我們更瞭解一種鮮少被人類見到、害羞又溫馴的生物。

To learn more about these elusive creatures, we start our journey in Australia, home to the largest surviving dugong population on the planet.

為了更深入瞭解這些難以捉摸的生物，我們將從澳洲開始旅程，這裡擁有地球上現存最大的儒艮族群。

Helen Marsh is one of the world's leading experts in these underwater herbivores.

海倫·馬許是全球頂尖的這些水下草食動物專家之一。

I've been studying dugongs for about 50 years.

Their closest terrestrial relative is an elephant, and

牠們最近的陸地親戚是大象，而且

they look a bit like a cross between a walrus and a dolphin.

牠們看起來有點像海象和海豚的混合體。

Some people would say that they had a face that only a mother could love.

有些人會說牠們的長相，大概只有媽媽才愛得下去。

But the calves in particular are really cute and quite affectionate animals.

但小儒艮特別可愛，是很親人的動物。

The most amazing thing is that dugongs have fine hairs like cats, whiskers all over their body, which have nerves.

最讓人驚奇的是，儒艮身上佈滿了像貓咪一樣細緻的毛，也就是鬍鬚，這些鬍鬚上有神經。

So for a dugong, the most important sense is the sense of touch, which enables it to detect water, currents and movement of other animals.

所以對儒艮來說，最重要的感覺是觸覺，這讓牠們能偵測到水流和其他動物的移動。

Now you can see it has to feed on the bottom because the mouth opens ventrally.

你現在可以看到牠們必須在底部覓食，因為嘴巴朝腹側張開。

The whole head acts like a giant scrubbing brush to collect the seagrass.

整個頭部像巨大的刷子一樣收集海草。

They actually have pretty pathetic teeth, and so they need to eat soft and delicate plants.

牠們的牙齒其實相當差勁，所以需要吃柔軟精緻的植物。

Seagrass are pretty easy for them to dig up and they can eat the whole plant, which means they get the nutrition from both the leaves and from the roots and rhizomes.

海草對牠們來說很容易挖起來，牠們可以吃掉整株植物，這表示牠們能從葉子、根部和根莖中獲取營養。

Sea glass is very important to the environment because it's very important for lots and lots of species, not just dugongs.

海草對環境非常重要，因為牠對許多物種都很重要，不只是儒艮。

Dugongs rely solely on seagrass for survival.

But as the only sea mammals who consume it in huge quantities, the meadows also depend on them.

但作為唯一大量食用海草的海洋哺乳動物，海草床也依賴牠們。

Their grazing plows the seagrass beds and some of the seeds go through their digestive system, spreading as they move, helping to regenerate the meadows.

牠們的啃食會犁過海草床，有些種子會通過牠們的消化系統，在移動時散播，幫助海草床再生。

Dugongs are known to inhabit the 27 degrees north and south of the equator.

儒艮已知棲息在赤道南北緯27度以內。

But currently the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red lists dugongs as vulnerable to extinction.

但目前國際自然保育聯盟（IUCN）將儒艮列為極度瀕危物種。

In some countries, they have already disappeared in others, they're believed to be in rapid decline.

有些國家牠們已經消失了，有些國家則被認為數量正在急劇減少。

Perhaps what makes dugongs most vulnerable is that they inhabit coastal environments where humans are also most active.

或許讓儒艮最脆弱的原因是，牠們棲息在人類也最活躍的沿海環境。

The reasons for their falling numbers are unsustainable fishing, collision with vessels, and

牠們數量減少的原因包括不可持續的捕撈、與船隻碰撞，以及

last, but by no means least, the large scale loss of seagrass, caused in part by climate change.

最後，但同樣重要的是，大規模的海草棲地喪失，這部分是由於氣候變遷所致。

With it come increasingly frequent extreme weather events, all of which massively impact seagrass and therefore threaten the survival of the remaining dugong populations.

隨之而來的是越來越頻繁的極端天氣事件，這些都會對海草造成巨大影響，進而威脅到剩餘儒艮族群的生存。

The team in Australia is working tirelessly to preserve the delicate ecosystems they rely on to survive.

澳洲的團隊正不懈努力，以保育牠們賴以生存的脆弱生態系統。

Seagrass is so important to dugong, so protecting their seagrass habitat is very important.

海草對儒艮非常重要，是以保護牠們的海草棲地也非常重要。

We do a lot of work here to try and find solutions for their protection.

我們在這裡做了很多工作，試圖尋找保護牠們的解決方案。

To understand population size of dugong numbers, the technique we've been using most frequently is aerial surveys.

為了了解儒艮的數量，我們最常使用的技術是空中調查。

That means surveying a whole stretch of coastline and counting animals.

這表示要調查一整段海岸線並計算動物數量。

We have conducted the aerial survey for jue bones for about 40 years.

我們進行空中調查已經大約 40 年了。

This extensive research has helped scientists begin to understand more not only about dugongs, but

這項廣泛的研究幫助科學家們開始更瞭解儒艮，

The presence of dugongs gives us an indication of the health of the ocean and most importantly, the health of our coastal environments and the seagrass meadows.

儒艮的存在，能讓我們瞭解海洋的健康狀況，最重要的是，瞭解我們沿海環境和海草床的健康狀況。

We estimate that a dugong requires about 30-50kg of seagrass per animal per day.

我們估計一隻儒艮一天需要大約 30-50 公斤的海草。

If you find dugongs in an area, that means seagrass is there and most likely healthy.

如果你在某個區域發現儒艮，這表示那裡有海草，而且很可能很健康。

If you start seeing dugongs in decline or not seeing them in certain areas, that probably means that seagrass is either in poor condition or has disappeared.

如果你開始看到儒艮數量減少，或在某些區域看不到牠們，那可能表示海草的狀況不佳，或者已經消失了。

But feeding grounds are only part of the puzzle.

understanding their movements and migration patterns is key to protecting their populations, a challenging task.

瞭解牠們的移動和遷徙模式，是保護牠們族群的關鍵，這項任務相當艱鉅。

We also conduct a lot of tracking work to understand their diving behavior.

我們也進行許多追蹤工作，來瞭解牠們的潛水行為。

To tag dugongs, we have to capture them manually.

為了給儒艮戴上標籤，我們必須手動捕捉牠們。

And that's a pretty intense activity that we conduct in the field.

這是一項相當費力的野外活動。

We capture the animal, secure them against the stretcher, and

我們捕捉動物，將牠們固定在擔架上，然後

then it takes about 10 minutes to deploy, say, a satellite tag, take measurements, skin samples for DNA analysis, to then release the animal.

大約需要 10 分鐘的時間來裝設衛星標籤、測量、採集 DNA 分析用的皮膚樣本，然後將動物釋放。

Now, once the animal is equipped with the tags, we get all of the information through satellites onto our computers to understand where dugongs might have been, what their preferred habitats are, and

現在，一旦動物裝備好標籤，我們就能透過衛星將所有資訊傳送到電腦，以瞭解儒艮可能去過哪裡、牠們偏好的棲地是什麼，以及

how they're diving through the water column.

To be honest, I quite like the fact that there is a challenge to study dugongs.

老實說，我還蠻喜歡研究儒艮的挑戰性。

They're not easy to get to, they're not easy to get close to.

That provides a bit of a challenge for US scientists.

這對美國科學家來說，是一項挑戰。

但我想，這也是牠們的魅力所在。

The story of these out of reach creatures begins not in the oceans, but

這些難以觸及的生物的故事，並非始於海洋，而是

on land, over 50 million years ago, in a world long forgotten, when their ancestors roamed the earth as terrestrial herbivores, a now extinct lineage that also gave rise to modern elephants.

在五千萬年前的陸地上，在一個早已被遺忘的世界裡，牠們的祖先曾是陸地上的草食動物，一個現已滅絕的譜系，也孕育了現代的大象。

Shifting coastlines and changing climates lured some of these mammals from land to water.

海岸線的變遷和氣候的改變，吸引了部分哺乳動物從陸地走向海洋。

Over time, their amphibious ancestors began a gradual transition.

隨著時間的推移，牠們兩棲的祖先開始了漸進的轉變。

Flippers replaced legs, lungs evolved for long slow dives, and

取而代之的是鰭狀肢取代了腿，肺部演化出能長時間緩慢潛水的機能，

the dugong emerged as the herbivorous aquatic mammal it is today.

儒艮演化成了今日這種草食性的水生哺乳動物。

Fossilized remains of these ancient mammals have been found in Qatar, dating back millions of years and demonstrating a long history of sea cows in the Arabian Peninsula, which continues to the present day, where scientists have made a remarkable discovery.

這些古代哺乳動物的化石殘骸在卡達被發現，可追溯至數百萬年前，顯示阿拉伯半島的海牛有著悠久的歷史，一直延續至今，科學家們在此有了驚人的發現。

I was so lucky as a marine scientist to work in three basins.

身為一位海洋科學家，我非常幸運能在三個海域工作。

The Mediterranean Sea and then in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the Gulf of Mexico, I used to work on the deep sea.

When I came here, I started to look at the life in the Arabian Gulf.

來到這裡之後，我開始研究阿拉伯灣的生命。

I imagined with extreme condition, extreme temperature, extreme salinity, it would be less diverse.

我曾想像，在極端條件、極端溫度、極端鹽度下，這裡的生物多樣性應該會比較少。

It was very surprising that we have these many ecosystems and this diversity.

令人驚訝的是，這裡有這麼多生態系統和這麼高的生物多樣性。

Although seagrass is in decline in most places, despite exceptionally high temperatures and salinity, here in Qatar, it's flourishing and the dugong population is thriving.

雖然海草在大多數地方都在減少，但儘管溫度和鹽度異常高，在卡達這裡，海草卻蓬勃發展，儒艮的族群也欣欣向榮。

Seagrass species we have here are tolerant for conditions that is very harsh.

這裡的海草種類對嚴苛的環境條件有很強的耐受性。

So the species we have here is different from the species we have in different places.

所以我們這裡的物種，跟其他地方的物種是不一樣的。

Dr. Yusra Salay Men is a leading expert on seagrass.

Yusra Salay Men 博士是海草領域的頂尖專家。

Her research here could be the key to regenerating dugong feeding grounds elsewhere and countering the effects of climate change.

她在這裡的研究，或許是復育其他地方儒艮覓食地、以及對抗氣候變遷影響的關鍵。

We expect salinity to increase, we expect temperature to increase.

我們預期鹽度會增加，我們預期溫度也會升高。

These are two parameters of climate change.

而這些情況在這裡已經存在了。

So we actually work on modeling what we see here to be able to predict how the climate will affect other basins in the world.

所以我們實際上是透過模擬這裡的狀況，來預測氣候將如何影響世界其他海域。

卡達的團隊由 Dr. Mohsen Al Ansi 領導。

Mohsen Al Ansi, a keen conservationist with a passion for the underexplored.

他是一位熱衷保育的人士，對未被充分探索的領域充滿熱情。

巴卡拉特·阿爾·巴哈爾·阿爾·巴哈里亞特。

Having found where the dugongs are, the team began to study their unique behavior in the Gulf.

團隊找到了儒艮的蹤跡後，便開始研究牠們在海灣的獨特行為。

And the most pressing questions were, how many dugongs inhabit these waters and why do they come here?

而最迫切的問題是，有多少儒艮棲息在這片水域，以及牠們為何會來到這裡？

The first time I heard of a dugong was from this project.

我第一次聽到儒艮這個名字，就是從這個計畫開始的。

It came at a perfect time where I was looking for a topic and I loved it.

這時機剛好，我正在尋找一個主題，而且我愛上了它。

It was when Dr. Mahsen approached Dr. Yusra.

那時 Mohsen 博士聯繫了 Yusra 博士。

With the team now fully in place, the time had come to take a deep dive into the world of these elusive creatures.

團隊成員到位後，是時候深入瞭解這些神祕生物的世界了。

They are shy mammals, especially the dugongs in our region.

牠們是害羞的哺乳動物，尤其是在我們這個區域的儒艮。

字幕列表影片播放

儒艮只在海草茂盛的地方生存… (Dugongs Survive Only Where Seagrass Thrives…)

vulnerable

demonstrate

delicate

presence