THE BELUGA

LE BELOUGA

NAME
->Its scientific name is DELPHINAPTERUS LEUCAS
->The name beluga comes from a Russian word which means white.
->The beluga is also called WHITE WHALE.
->We also give him the name of SEA CANARY in touch with sounds and high-pitched hiss which it emits.

SPECIES
->It is a big and white CETACEAN of the ocean Arctic and it goes back up rivers in summer on hundreds of kilometres.
->It is a part of the MONODONTIDAE family in the same way as the narwhal.
->The beluga is a WARM-BLOODED MAMMAL which breathes of the air and which is adapted to the life in cold waters of the Arctic.
->As all the MARINE MAMMALS,it has a thick coat of fat which constitutes an effective insulating material allowing him to maintain its internal temperature in approximately 37°C in icy waters.

CHARACTERISTICS
->This marine mammal swims relatively slowly and feeds mainly on fishes.
->This SOCIAL ANIMAL can attain 5m of length and he lives on average forty years.
->It is bigger than the majority of dolphins but much less than the other whales.
->The grown-up males are generally bigger than the females and can weigh up to one and a half tonne (females around the tonne).
->The newborns measure around 1.5 metre and weigh from 50 to 80 kilograms.They are brown or dark grey and turn pale in time to become completely white between six and eight years.

PREDATORS
->Their main natural predators are the polar bears and the orcs.
When belugas are trapped by ice,the bears stun them and hoist them on the ice floe to finish them.

POPULATION
->The global population of beluga whales stabilized in the neighbourhood of 100.000 individuals. 

MAN AND BELUGA
->Canada terminated the commercial hunting of whales in 1972 and forbade any hunting of the beluga in Saint-Laurent in 1979.
->Pollutants in Sain-Laurent are the object of many researches because numerous industrial substances can damage the health of marine mammals.

SPECIES IN DANGER
->The beluga is a threatened species.

*BELUGA/bélouga ou béluga
*MAMMAL/mammifère
*WARM-BLOODED ANIMALS/animaux à sang chaud
*ORC/orque
*NEWBORN/nouveau-né
*HOIST/lever,hisser
*ICE FLOE,ICE PACK/banquise
*NEIGHBOURHOOD,VICINITY/voisinage,proximité
*IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF/dans les ---
*NUMEROUS/nombreux
*HIGH-PITCHED/aïgu(voix)
*HISS/sifflement(son)
*POLAR BEAR/ours polaire
*TO STUN/assommer
*THREATENED/menacé
*SPECIES/espèce

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