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In early October, the Arctic Circle Dive Centre gained some more white whales, with three belugas arriving as part of the development of the White Sea branch of Saint Petersburg’s Utrish Dolphinarium.
The new arrivals are young females aged two, two and four. In human terms, they are children/teenagers. Not used to humans, they at first avoided their trainers, Anton Semyonovich and Aleksandr Gulyayev; the only authority they looked up to was our ‘senior resident’ whale, Semyon.Soon, however, the girls began to achieve stunning successes. Within just two weeks they had learned tricks and allowed themselves to be stroked. This may be easy for humans, but for young belugas it is very difficult – as hard as learning the alphabet or gymnastics moves is for a 4-year-old child.
Now, a month after arriving at the Dive Centre, the belugas, thanks to diligent and sensitive work by their trainers, love being with people and enjoy contact, offering their snouts and tongues to be tickled, to the delight of their bipedal friends.
The young whales were given their names at the Dive Centre: Matryona, Nilma and Pelageya
To see the latest photoreport of new beluga residents.
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