General Overview
The white whales are generally
referred to as beluga whales or white porpoise.
Their scientific name is Delphinapterus leucas, "Delphinapterus"
meaning whale without fins and the word "leucas"
referring to white. Beluga also has Russian origins,
where "Beluga" means white. They are generally found
in the arctic and sub arctic waters and some
adjoining seas. You can also find them in some
rivers such as St. Lawrence in Canada and the Yukon
in Alaska during certain times of the year. The male
white whales are longer than the female ones. The
male whale's size varies between 11 and 15 feet. The
size of female white whales is a bit shorter,
around 9 to 13 feet. And with regards to weight, the female weights around
3000 lb and the male around an extra 300 lb. When baby white whales are born,
they are
generally gray in color, 5 feet in length and 170 lb
in weight. As it grows up, it becomes
yellowish-white to creamy white in color. They may feed on
crabs, clams, shrimps, snails, squid, octopus,
worms, crustaceans etc.In nature they are very
social having their own group called as pods,
consisting of 2 to 25 animals. They are very noisy
in character and don't make major migrations. That's
why they are called as the 'sea canaries'. They have
the danger from the other killer whales and the
polar bears as these animals generally hunt the
white whales. The white whales differ from other
whales in certain character like turning the head
back, right, left, up, down and making faces as the
other whales can't turn it back because of their
fused neck bones. They have flexible lips and
forehead though they can 't grin and scowl like
people. The forehead area of the whet whales are
known as the "melon". It is the acoustical lens
used for echolocation and communication by whales.
The white whale population living in Mackenzie
estuary sometimes migrates to the central Bering
Sea, or to south to avoid the Arctic ice pack
expansion.
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