Our belugas are doing well and are adapting to their new areas at Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut. The biggest novelty for them is living in outdoor pools. They don’t seem to like rain, but the omnipresent gulls in this seaport are a fascinating new phenomenon to most of them. The gulls swoop down toward the pool during feeding sessions to try to get the fish, and their flight patterns startle some of the whales. But the funniest thing I’ve experienced so far was when a gull was floating in the beluga habitat, its legs dangling in the water. Kayavak, our 9-year-old female, saw the gull and the dangling feet, and she probably assumed that it was a new toy that we were offering. She hovered under the bird, getting closer and closer, and she even opened her mouth, as she does with many toys. But something about the feet and the gull must have seemed different because she never actually grabbed the bird. But she was sure curious! I wonder what would have happened had she grabbed the gull’s feet.

Posted by Ken Ramirez, animal collections and training