Bella is the offspring of Puiji and Naluark. She’s been independent of her mom for about a year and a half. Her relationship to Naluark is social rather than familial—beluga sires have no parenting role.

Bella was born just seconds before the aquarium closed for the day on July 17, 2006. It was as perfect a birth as the marine mammal and veterinary staffs could have wished for as she energetically swam to the surface, took her first, strong breaths, bonded with Puiji and quickly located the sweet spot alongside mom where she could easily slipstream as she learned to swim. In her first half hour, she "got her sea legs"—mastering her coordination in the water, negotiating the pool’s rockwork (although Puiji was quick to avert any possible collisions) and figuring out that if she released air from her blowhole, her buoyancy changed and she could dive. In another 24 hours, she was nursing and well on her way. You can read weekly accounts of Bella’s development by clicking on the 2006 updates. (And yes, we thought at first that she was a he.) Then check out a photo of her first birthday celebration—that’s mom Puiji blowing out the candle on the fish-decorated cake.

Bella enjoys her role in the Fantasea show, throwing a lot of energy into every behavior. She’s eager to learn new things and looks at every experience with the trainers as an opportunity for fun. She and Miki, a male who is a year younger, have a very visible friendship, and they both enjoy playing with Nunavik, Puiji’s new calf—and Bella’s full sibling.

While we don’t know their birth months, we’re also celebrating Puiji’s and Naya’s birthdays in July, when many belugas are born in the wild. (Puiji, left, Bella and Naya are shown here in January 2008.) We estimate that Puiji was born in 1986 and that Naya, the female who has been a nurturing "auntie" to Shedd’s beluga calves, including Bella, was born in 1989. Both came from the large beluga population that spends summers in western Hudson Bay, off Churchill, Manitoba. Based on their size, we estimate that each was 3 years old at the time of acquisition. At that age, they were juveniles already independent of their mothers.

At 10 feet, 8 inches and 1,500 pounds, Puiji is average-sized among our female belugas. She is the grayest of the adults. But she is most recognizable by her pronounced, even bulging, melon—the flexible round mound of forehead through which belugas echolocate. Puiji can really jut her melon forward, and early on it was apparent that Bella inherited this prominent characteristic. (Yes, you can see family resemblances among the whales.)

For those at Shedd who remember "little" Naya, who weighed about 700 pounds when she arrived at the aquarium in 1992, it’s amazing that she is by far the heftiest of the adult females now. She’s a few inches shorter than Puiji, but at 1,800 pounds, she is second in weight only to our one-ton-plus male, Naluark. Like Naluark, she has rolls of extra blubber running the length of her sides, called rails, that make her easy to identify. Naya is one of the most playful of the adult belugas, but she’s also incredibly responsible, always helping the other females care for their calves, from babysitting to protecting to producing milk to help nurse the infants.

Be sure to visit in July to wish these three beautiful belugas happy birthdays!

- Posted by Karen Furnweger, web editor