A lonely narwhal that strayed far from its Arctic habitat has apparently found a new family in a pod of belugas in Canada’s Saint Lawrence River, a marine conservation group said Thursday.
The juvenile narwhal — identifiable from its tusk and grey spots — was filmed by marine biologists over the summer, swimming closely with about 10 white beluga whales.
Their interactions, rolling and rubbing against each other near the water’s surface and flashing their genitals, for example, suggests the narwhal has been fully accepted by the pod, said Robert Michaud, director of the non-profit Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM) in Tadoussac, Quebec.
