Beluga whales are white.
They are grey when they are born and turn white later.
They live in very cold places near the North Pole.
They have a round head.
Narwhals have a long tusk like a unicorn horn.
These whales eat fish and other seafood like crabs.
Beluga whales and narwhals are toothed whales.
Whales are in the animal group called cetaceans. Beluga whales and narwhals (the only cetacean with a long tusk) are together in a small family called Monodontidae (say mono-donti-day). They are toothed whales, and are medium-sized whales. Narwhals (or narwhales) are the other members of the family. They have one long tooth that looks like a unicorn’s horn, and in ancient times was thought to be magic.
Body and behaviours
Beluga whale. ©Getty Images
Their size ranges from about 4 to 6 metres in length. The Beluga whale has a rounded melon head, a short snout called a 'beak', and well-defined teeth. They have no dorsal fin, which would cause heat loss, but instead have a dorsal ridge that helps them travel in waters with sea ice.
The Beluga is grey at birth but turns completely white when it is about five years old. The white colour makes them easy to see in the dark ocean, but hard to see among floating ice or in seas when the waves are white.
They have very thick skin, especially around the melon, which helps it break through ice to breathe air. Unusually for cetaceans, the neck vertebrae of beluga whales are not fused together so they can move their heads up and down and to each side, an adaptation that helps them catch prey in icy or murky areas.
Beluga whales are very vocal and produce a great variety of sounds that can be clearly heard over distance. The beluga whale and Irrawaddy dolphins are the only cetaceans that can move their faces to produce sounds.
Beluga whales travel in groups of five to ten. They sometimes travel long distances up large rivers in order to breed.
Narwhals gather in larger groups in winter ice and smaller groups in summer.
The narwhal’s tusk is a large tooth, so it protrudes from the lip rather than the forehead. It is the only mammal with a straight tusk, all other tusks are curved. It is also a spiral, curling round and round in an anti-clockwise direction. No one really knows what the tusks are for: the nerves are on the outside so they can’t be used for breaking ice or fighting, and they can bend a bit. It could be that they are part of the animal’s communication system, or perhaps the length of them are signs of an animal’s importance in the pod, or group.
Habitat and distribution
A pair of narwhals. Image©Dreamstime
These whales are found in the cold waters near the Arctic, including Greenland, Canada and Alaska.
Diet
Beluga whales feed on a wide variety of marine life such as salmon, whiting, sole, cod and other fish, octopus, crabs, clams, mussels and snails. They also often hunt in deep water for fish found on the bottom of the ocean, such as flounder and halibut. No one really knows what narwhals eat because they have never been seen or filmed feeding in the wild.
Conservation Status and Threats
Beluga whale with calf. ©Getty Images
Because they live near coasts and swim up rivers where they enter the sea, these whales are very vulnerable to water pollution. Poisonous substances collect in their blubber and in their milk. The Belugas of the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada are badly affected by pollution.
They are considered to be Endangered in some areas and Near Threatened in others.
Narwhals. Image©Dreamstime
It’s a good idea to find information from more than one source!
Read more about beluga whales
Watch videos of these whales in the wild: one of Beluga whales and one of narwhals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcFvw6s9tBc
https://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/26992698659
Read about narwhals, the other member of the same family:
http://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/unicorn-of-the-sea-narwhal-facts
https://kids.kiddle.co/Narwhal