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Facts and Knowledge:
The beluga is one of two species of white whale. It is known by some as the "singing whale" because the wide range of noises it makes underwater can often be heard above the surface. The beluga whales lives in the icy waters of the Arctic where it white skin camouflages it throughout most of the year. The whale uses it head and back to smash through the ice so that it can come to the surface to breathe.
Behavior: The beluga is a vocal whale; it makes a variety of sounds from birdlike chirps to roars. Like all whales, the beluga uses these sounds to communicate. It also has large range of facial expressions; these, too, may be a form of communication. The beluga once roamed the seas in herds of tens of thousands. Over hunting has reduced its numbers. Now large herds gather only when returning to their shallow breeding grounds.. Each herd is divided into smaller groups, pods, of breeding or bachelor males and females with young. Pods spread out in the feeding grounds but join up again for the annual migration to the breeding grounds.
Breeding: In Mating accurs from April to June. The dominant male with more than one female. After the mating season, the beluga migrates south to warmer coastal waters and arrives in June or July. A female, pregnant from last years mating, will split off into a small nursing pod. She gives birth to a single calf. which arrives underwater, tail first, and then makes it way to the surface to breathe. The newborn calf is grayish brown and turns lighter gray after a couple of years. After about a month, when the calf is strong enough, all the beluga's migrate back to the colder Arctic waters. The young beluga suckles from its mother for about two years.
Food & Hunting: The beluga hunts in small packs, eating worms, crustaceans, and fish that live in schools or on the seabed. Working in groups of five or six, the whales herd their prey into shallow waters, or toward the shore. The beluga vocalizes, or "talks," to other whales in the hunting group. The beluga's teeth, which appear when the mammal is about two or three for feeding, since it swallows its prey whole. Nevertheless, they wear down, probably because the beluga rubs them together to produce sounds. another way to communicate. Unlike other whales, the beluga has a flexible neck and is able to move its head from side to side. This flexibility allows the whale a wide sweep of the ocean floor when hunting. Its flippers are flexible, too; they enable it to move easily in tight situations, even backwards if necessary.
Beluga Whale & Man: The beluga whale was easy prey for whalers of the nineteenth century. Whales forced the beluga's onto beaches, stranding them. Thousands of whales died this way. The beluga is no longer killed for its meat in Western waters, since it contains toxic levels of poisonous marine pollution. Now, the main threat to it survival are pollution of shallow coastal waters, the building of hydroelectics dams that alter its habitat. . and the widespread disturbance of its breeding grounds.
Key Facts: Sizes, Weight, Breeding, Lifestyle, Related Species
Length: Males, 10 - 16 ft, females
slightly smaller
Weigh: 1000 to 3,000 lbs
Breeding:
Sexual maturity: Male 8 years, Female
5 years
Breeding Season: April to June
Gestation: 14 to 15 months
No of young: 1
Lifestyle:
Habit: Sociable, living in groups.
Call: Varies from delicate "cheep" sound
to a roar.
Diet: Bottom dwelling fish and crustaceans,
and shoal forming fish.
Life span: 30 to 40 years
Related species: There are only two species
in the Monodontidae family; the beluga and the Narswhal, Monodonmonoceros.
Distribution: Coastal waters of Arctic
and sub Arctic regions of North America, and Greenland, Europe, and Asia.
Conservation: Present population is unknown
but thought to be recovering from heavy casualties as a result of eighteenth
and nineteenth century whaling. Modern threats include pollution
and disturbance of breeding grounds.
Identifying The Beluga Whale:
Body: Plump, white, narrower at neck.
Calf: grayish brown at birth. Slate blue in second
year, then gradually turns white.
Length: The beluga is a medium size whale.
Flippers: Smooth, tips curl up.
Tail flukes: For forward motion. Notched: adults
may retain streaks of dark Pigment.
Did you know:
The beluga breeding cycle takes 14 to 15 months
to carry the calf, and about to years to suckle it.
The beluga does not have a dorsal fin.
The beluga was called "sea canary" by ninetieth
century whalers because of its high pitched sounds.
Most whales have thin skins. Because the beluga's
skin is thicker, it ws once used to make boot laces.
The beluga shares it habitat with the norwhal.