Socializing with Beluga whales
You probably have been brainwashed to believe that dolphins are people’s best friends in the ocean, but that is mostly PR from the animal trick people. As you will see in the videos below the real treat of the sea is the Beluga whale. They have a brain about the same size as yours and do not even need trainers to do “tricks” they figure them out for themselves and play ball. Beluga’s have some big body advantages as well as big brains.
Belugas are among the few aquatic species that can swim backwards. The vertebrae in a Beluga’s neck are not fused together, which gives them the unique ability to turn its head up, down and side-to-side. Scientists believe belugas spend more time interacting with each other (and other animals) than any other type of cetaceans. They socialize migrating with mixed kinds of whales, and it’s not uncommon for them to switch pods along the way. Beluga’s melon-shaped head allows the species to make facial expressions. Belugas can change the shape of their lips to create a whole variety of expressive features and sounds. Beluga whales were the first of their species to have discovered the ability to mimic human speech without any training. “Noc,” a whale captured by the U.S. Navy, began copying the cadence and timing of human conversation, and it was eventually determined he was attempting to make a more complex, whale to human connection.
In video one: This Beluga is in a large tank for research purposes and had his own yellow ball to play with. In the process of throwing and bopping the ball around the whale knocks it out of the pool and out of his reach from edge of the water. In the clip, shot at an undisclosed aquarium, the pale whale can be seen surfacing at the edge of the pool and looking forlornly at a yellow ball sitting on the walkway just out of his reach. The resourceful beluga whale is showing his smarts after devising an ingenious “Moby trick” to retrieve a lost ball that had popped outside its tank. Just when all seems lost, the blubbery brainiac shoots a jet of water at the plaything from its mouth like a firehose. He repeatedly surfaces, mouth filled water to blast the ball until it bounces off the enclosure wall and within biting range. “The way this beluga cleverly retrieves his ball, demonstrates literal outside-the-box thinking.” The beluga then picks up the ball in its jaws and disappears back into the drink. Needless to say, the sea creature’s golden retrieval made a giant splash online. “Man! beluga whales feel like the dogs only in the sea,” gushed one whale fan. In fact, a Beluga whale in the open sea off Norway has been accused of being a Russian spy after it was found wearing a harness, with no weapons attached, bringing new meaning to “animal intelligence.”
In the second video you can watch a fishing crew and a Beluga playing catch with a football. We do not know who started the game, but the sailors seem to know this whale was one of the players. So next time flipper comes begging for a fish tell him to go out for a pass and see who is smarter.
A whale of a smile:
I went swimming with dolphins yesterday but there was one problem,
They were too clicky.
Some people say whales are going extinct…
…but have you been to Golden Corral recently?
Why is it that people are so delighted and amazed when they see a whale leap from the ocean and crash back into the water, but I do one belly flop in the pool and suddenly I’m a jerk?
Where do you find a particular type of whale?
In the Specific Ocean.
December 29th Birthdays
1983 – Alison Brie, 1936 – Mary Tyler Moore, 1990 – Julia Levy, , 1983 – Jessica Andrews
1947 – Ted Danson, 1972 – Jude Law, 1938 – John Voight, 1800 – Charles Goodyear