Delphinapterus Leucas

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Alexandrea Davis

Beluga Whales: Delphinapterus Leucas

The name beluga whale literally means white whale. Belugas’ scientific name means, in Greek, white whale without a fin. Delphinapterus meaning white whale and Leucas meaning without a fin.

Belugas have great hearing. The authority cortex of their brain works very well. Their eyes are have sharp image both in and out of water. Belugas have small sensory areas in their mouths that may function the taste. It is said that toothed whales do not have olfactory lobes, so they do not have any sense of smell.

and CommunicationBeluga whales’ vocal sounds are pretty much all they need to survive, along with their hearing. Their eyes are almost useless. They use their ‘voices’ to locate food in dark, murky water, air holes, navigation, and communi-cation. They can determine many different things by using their vocals. Belugas are very vocal, and that is how they got the nickname “sea canaries.” At least 11 different sounds made by belugas have been documented. During sound production, beluga whales’ melon (the large oval shape that makes their head big) changes shape. To commun-icate, belugas also use facial expressions and rub against each other.

Beluga whales are born a dark gray/bluish color, and after the first month or so, they darken. After that, as they age, they gradually turn yellowish white or creamy white. Belugas whiten fully by the age of 13. They reach their full size when they’re about 10 years old.

Adult males average from 3.4 to 4.6 meters and weigh around 3, 307 pounds.

Adult females average from 3 to 4 meters, and weigh around 2, 998 pounds.

(Appearance)

Beluga whales live mostly in the Arctic, in colder, and also shallower waters. Sometimes they travel through large rivers, such as the St. Lawrence river. Their diet contains of over 100 different sea creatures from which they get at the bottom of the sea, but they mostly eat octopus, squid, crabs, snails, sandworms, and fish such as cod, capelin, herring, smelt, and flounder.

(Habitat)

(and Diet)

Belugas live in pods (group name for belugas), containing 2 to 25, or about 10, at average. A pod usually only has females and calves (baby belugas), and one male as the leader, but during the calving season, mothers with calves usually separate from the pod. Sometimes, during migration, many pods may come together to make one large pod, consist-ing of 200 to 10, 000 belugas. Beluga whales like to socialize with each other, by rubbing against each other, chasing each other either aggressively or playfully, and hunting food together.

Vocalizing is one of the most common behaviors of a beluga whale. During the calving season, belugas have been seen carrying things, such as planks, a seine net, and even caribou skeletons on their backs and heads. Female belugas in zoological environments have been noticed carrying floats or buoys or other kinds of items on their heads and backs, and scientists and other people suspect that it might be surrogate behavior.Belugas often migrate with bowhead whales, also.

Sometimes while swimming in extremely shallow waters, belugas get stuck on shore, but mostly survive until the next day and get carried by the next tide into the deeper waters again, unharmed.

Stranding:

(Behavior)

Polar bears and killer whales are the beluga whale’s main predators. Also, when belugas get caught in the ice, they become an easy target for polar bears, or the can die of suffocation or starvation. Humans can also be a threat towards belugas whales. We have hunted belugas for centuries for their blubber, meat, and skin. The Europeans even made a commercial about hunting beluga whales. They were killed along the St. Lawrence River by fishermen who thought of them as a threat to the fish populations. Still today beluga whales are hunted, and if hunting becomes overrated, the belugas could end up next to many other valuable species on the endangered list.

(Predators)

and other threats . . . Diseases and environmental issues have also effected beluga whales. Run-off into the St. Lawrence River has polluted it with many deadly, toxic chemicals and things such as mercury, cadmium, and lead. These things may be connected to the low birth rates coming from belugas. Oil has also made a large effect on not only belugas, but many other sea creatures, too. Diseases such as skin diseases, tumors, fungal, bacterial, and viral infections, heart disease, urogenital disorders, and respiratory disorders, some brought by toxic cont-amination, can easily kill beluga whales.

Belugas are said to be slow swimmers, only being able to reach up to 22 kph for about 15 minutes. They often swim in very shallow waters, sometimes barely covering their whole body. And they can swim back-wards and forwards. While under water, beluga whales hold their breath, returning to the surface of the water to blow water out of their blowholes and get more air, like many other whales. Most of the fat in belugas is put into a thick layer of blubber, which accounts for more than 40% of a beluga’s weight.

When belugas sleep, they float on the surface of the water. Also, they keep one eye opened, and only one half of their brain goes to sleep, the opposite half of the eye. For instance, if the beluga went to sleep with it’s left eye open and it’s right one closed, the right side of its brain would be awake while the left side slept. This is so that they are able to keep watch for anything that might be dangerous towards them.

(Adaptations)

(and)

(Sleep)

Reproduction and Care of YoungMale belugas develop the ability

to mate at around 8 to 9 years of age, and females around 4 to 7. The breeding season usually takes place from March to May, about ten months after calving. One dominant male may mate with more than one female.

It takes1 4 to 15 months before a mother gives birth to her calf. March through September, but mostly May through July, is the time when calves are born. Mothers give birth to calves every two or three years, and twins are rare. Belugas, like many other whales, can swim at birth. Calves learn how to survive by observing and mimicking adults in their pod. Belugas live for approximately 25 to 30 years.

PopulationThe current estimated population of

beluga whales is 50, 000 to 70, 000 animals. They are not very near to extinction, although they are sometimes hunted by humans.

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