Young Narwhal Adopted By Totally Chill Beluga Whale Pod

[Judi Lynn]

09/16/2018 11:30 pm ET

“It’s a like a big social ball of young juveniles that are playing some social, sexual games,” one Canadian whale expert said.
By Mary Papenfuss

A rare narwhal in eastern Canada’s St. Lawrence River has apparently been adopted by a band of beluga whales, scientists have revealed.

The young, gray-speckled narwhal was first spotted in the river in 2016 with approximately 100 adult belugas. But it has recently begun traveling with a pod of about ten belugas, all believed to be juvenile or young adult males.

Narwhals have a single pointed tusk growing from their head. Their tusks can be seen in drone video footage of the whales taken by the Canadian nonprofit Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals.

The narwhal “seems to be at home with the St. Lawrence belugas,” said a GREMM statement.

More:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/belugas-adopt-narwhal-juvenile-in-st-lawrence-river_us_5b9eef2fe4b013b0977be775

[Pachamama]

1. Amazing....

I wish there was more footage and more background....

[Judi Lynn]

2. This Pod of Beluga Whales Adopted a Young Lost Narwhal

 SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 16, 2018

Every year, the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals head down to the St. Lawrence River in the Canadian province of Quebec to study the beluga whales that travel through. This year, they saw something strange: a juvenile narwhal that appeared to have been adopted by the pod.

This is strange because narwhals generally live in the Arctic waters of Canada, Norway, Greenland, and Russia. In the winter months, they live under the sea ice of Baffin Bay. This lost narwhal was hundreds of miles from home, and according to researchers, he was doing just fine. “It behaves like it was one of the boys,” Robert Michaud, GREMM’s president and scientific director, told CBC News. According to IFL Science, Llike narwhals, beluga whales are primarily found in the Arctic. The ones that travel up the St. Lawrence River, however, are a little different. The group of 120 (or so) belugas there don’t migrate as far as normal pods.

This is the third year in a row the young narwhal has been seen with the pod, leading researchers to believe that it has well and truly been adopted by the group. This year, after launching the drone, they were pleased to spot the narwhal again. “To our surprise,” GREMM researchers wrote, “the narwhal is amongst them! After the initial excitement of this discovery, our first question was: is this the same individual as the one observed in 2016 and 2017? We, therefore, landed the drone and took out our camera to take a few snapshots. After photographing our vagrant as well as his companions from both sides, we were able to confirm that it was indeed the same narwhal.”

It’s not all that uncommon to see one species welcome another into the group—a fact that one expert thinks we could learn a lot from. “I don’t think it should surprise people,” said Martin Nweeia, a researcher at Harvard University. “I think it shows the compassion and the openness of other species to welcome another member that may not look or act the same. And maybe that’s a good lesson for everyone.”

https://www.theinertia.com/video/beluga-whales-adopt-narwhal/

[Judi Lynn]

3. Friendship blooms as young narwhal swims with St. Lawrence belugas

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
Published Thursday, September 13, 2018 12:55PM EDT
Last Updated Thursday, September 13, 2018 3:55PM EDT

MONTREAL -- With its dark grey skin and prominent tusk, the young narwhal stands out from the pod of snowy white belugas it has joined in the St. Lawrence River, some 1,000 kilometres from home.

But against all odds, the wayward arctic mammal appears to have become a fully integrated member of the group, serving as an example of the complex social bonds the animals can form, according to the scientific director of a whale research group.

Robert Michaud said the narwhal was first spotted in 2016 swimming with a group of juvenile belugas in the river, well south of its usual Arctic range.

Drone footage captured by the Michaud's group earlier this summer confirmed the narwhal is still with the same group, and had apparently become "just one of the boys," as Michaud puts it.

More:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/friendship-blooms-as-young-narwhal-swims-with-st-lawrence-belugas-1.4092607

[Judi Lynn]

4. Narwhals song

[House of Roberts]

6. Sprint used that very song in a commercial.

Worst noise I ever heard emanate from my tv. Before that, I didn't know narwhals were a real thing. Now it seems I hear something about them every now and then.

[Canoe52]

5. KnR!

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

7. Richard Bach's new book: "Johnathan Livingston Narwhal"

It's about a young narwhal who breaks away from the main pod to discover his own destiny.