Beluga Whales

Each beluga’s personality is unique, but all of them are very sociable. They can give a high five, hula-hoop, play basketball, perform synchronous jumps, kiss their trainers, dance with them and of course sing their loud and tuneful whale serenades.

In August 2021, Jessica gave birth to her first baby, and it turned out to be the first beluga whale birth in captivity in Russia.  Jessica lives with her daughter Kalina in a separate enclosure and devotes herself entirely to bringing her up.

Ler

He started his career at the Primorsky Aquarium in 2010 together with his companion Nil. He is one of the first performers and is an alpha male in the whale pod. He clearly states his dominance, constantly demands attention from trainers and can work for a longer time than other beluga whales. The trainers say that he is diligent, resilient, courageous and charming. He dislikes caressing and prefers hard work to sloppy sentimentality. Most of all, he loves training in the water and under the water.

Nil

Nil appeared at the Primorsky Aquarium in 2010, together with Ler, and straight away displayed his unbelievable intelligence, guile and astuteness. Unlike Ler, he quickly grasps what the trainers want of him, but is much lazier. He can’t stand tedious work and prefers to do his job quickly and then move away. If he is made to do some tricks he dislikes, he suggests his own ideas. Nil has a habit of playing with divers who clean his pool by biting their fins and snorkels. And yes, he has been the first to steal a fish bucket right under a human’s nose, a trick he still performs every now and then. And, again contrary to Ler, he doesn’t mind being touched and caressed by different people.

Mii

He is the most emotional of the beluga whales, often singing and whistling during presentations. The trainers say that he resembles a teenager because he may be capricious and frolicking, often pretending to be a group leader for as long as it goes unnoticed by Ler. He is really curious, inventive and resourceful, the first to explore new objects. It was he who learned how to open the gate between pools. He enjoys repeating tricks for presentations in his free time and… competing with young Kalina for toys.

Jessica

Jessica is obviously a real woman, inside and out. The trainers say that her mouth very much resembles fleshy lips. She is a snowflake, may play a victim and hold a grudge for a long time. If she does not want to work with some trainer, she defiantly leaves them and chooses another one. Jessica is not as smart as other whales, but she is really industrious, determined and willing to work long hours. Another interesting fact about her is that she generally swims counter-clockwise while other beluga whales go clockwise. Jessica gave birth to her child Kalina in 2021 and proved to be a fantastic mother.

Kalina

She is the first beluga whale born at the Primorsky Aquarium. She was weaned at the age of nine months and had her first training session at 1.5 years of age. Kalina readily learns new behaviors and often mimics the adults. She adores swimming with the trainers. However, like a typical kid, she cannot stay on task for a long time and gets easily distracted by some new game. When she was practicing her first spins, she did them for everyone who was passing by the pool. Kalina is bold and adventurous. She often fearlessly approaches a new item in a pool, while other belugas are cautiously watching from a distance. She is mostly with her mom, but sometimes teases other belugas, just for fun. Kalina is learning new tricks now, both in her home pool and in the main pool of the Dolphinarium. She has already mastered ten different behaviors and tricks.

fun facts about belugas:

• Beluga whales, also called white whales, look very similar to dolphins. So, are they dolphins or whales? The Latin name of the species, Delphinapterus leucas, means 'white dolphin without a fin'. On the other hand, in terms of biology belugas belong to the family Monodontidae together with narwhals. Belugas are toothed whales, and are not part of the dolphin family.
• Beluga whales are rather large: their body length ranges from 3 to 6 meters and their weight is up to 1.5 tons. Even a newborn calf weighs about as much as an adult human girl, i.e. 50 kilos. Blubber, which helps to keep the animal warm, accounts for nearly a half of beluga’s weight.
• Beluga whales live in cold Arctic waters, among icebergs and ice floes, and are very well adapted to their habitat. They lack a dorsal fin, possibly because without it they can easier break sea ice cover with their backs. Moreover, their white coloration helps them blend in with the surrounding ice, making it difficult for predators to spot them.
• Beluga whales are born bluish or brownish grey. Their skin lightens as they grow up, becomes grey and then white at an age of four or five years.
• Unlike most other whales, the belugas have very flexible necks that enable them to move their heads up and down and from side to side.
• And they can smile, too! Belugas’ face muscles can move and create ‘expressions’ for all manner of emotion, from joy to sorrow and from cool aloofness to scornful disdain.
• Beluga whales use a variety of sounds to talk to each other, exchanging information and even chatting. They can vocalize up to 50 sounds, including clicks, whistles, chirps and squeals‘canaries of the sea’.