Beluga Whales
"Beluga
whales are close relatives to narwhals
and both live in Arctic waters."
Belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) are also called white whales and their name comes from "beloy" meaning "white" in Russian.
A beluga is easy to recognise by its greyish-white colour and a distinctive head dominated by its large melon.
It can be up to 5.5m long and weigh up to 1.6 tonnes.
Unlike most other whales and dolphins, it can show facial expressions by changing the shape of its face; and it can turn its head laterally.
It lacks a dorsal fin, probably as an adaption to swimming under ice.
It has got relatively large eyes, and short flippers.
They are very sociable animals and are known to move between different pods. They are playful, and make high pitched sounds.
The eat mainly fish, but also shrimps, crabs, octopus, squid and other sea animals.
They can swim backwards and they can live longer than 50 years.
There are about 100,000 of them in the world, however this is a small amount of the populations that existed before whaling.
Today they are threatened by water pollution, contaminants in their food chain, and other factors.
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