I’m a bit late on this one. I had posted previously about a Beluga whale being born at Marineland. Well, there was another one born about a week later that I missed.
This is from the Niagara This Week newspaper:
Beluga baby boom
Trainers carefully monitor new arrivals at MarinelandRobert Lapensee
Jul 13, 2005NIAGARA FALLS – Animal trainers at Marineland’s Arctic Cove are keeping a watchful eye over not one, but two new king-sized bundles of joy, with the birth of two beluga whales in the span of less than a week.
The excitement started when beluga whale Priscilla became a mom for the first time with the birth of a calf on Sunday of last week. At 150 pounds and stretching four feet in length, this was one big baby.
Trainers hardly had time to adjust to the addition to the beluga population when mom-to-be whale Denise gave birth to a calf on Thursday morning. That calf weighed 120 pounds and was also about four feet in length.
“She is very cute,” Marineland spokeswoman Ann Marie Rondinelli said of the first calf. “She started nursing after 12 hours and that is great.”
Both calves were watched by the training staff for the 24 hours after their birth in order to time and record feedings, respirations and their other activity. Rondinelli said the mortality rate for new belugas is very high but the staff is optimistic about the babies’ chances for survival. The data was also being collected and compared to that of previous births at Marineland and other marine parks.
Marineland has had belugas since 2000 and this is the fifth calf that has been born successfully. With another whale, Xena, expecting, Rondelli said this will likely be the most successful period of beluga births the marine park has had in a year. In 2002, two belugas were born.
Read the rest of the article for more reaction on the birth of the baby Beluga.