This beluga whale plays rugby at the North Pole, but the background is sad!
A video of a beluga whale playing with a ball is currently being shared on various social media platforms. In this video you can see the beluga whale accompanying a ship and bringing a ball thrown into the water by a diver back to the ship. Cute, that whale. It's amazing how he retrieves the ball like a trained dog.
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But like many viral animal videos, the background is far from cute. If you think about it for just a moment, it should immediately be clear to you that wild animals don't play ball like we know domesticated animals to do.
This beluga whale is not unknown.
This appears to be the Russian spy whale named Hvaldimir, who has escaped from captivity. In April 2019 he appeared off northern Norway wearing a harness marked “Equipment St. Petersburg”. He approached a boat and was obviously trying to remove the harness. He has now been freed from it.
Sad background of the “sweet” video
Hvaldimir probably learned during his training that he would be rewarded with food for finding objects. So he was rewarded with food for his services. That would explain his behavior when encountering boats and people. But now he is on his own, no one is responsible for getting food for him anymore. The researchers suspect that Hvaldimir, as can be seen in the video, tries to get food through various interactions with people.
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Now Hvaldimir is being observed and tracked by marine biologists. Since he was probably always fed and therefore never learned to hunt independently and thus provide food, he was already suffering from malnutrition. According to the current status, he should be doing better again.
The researchers advise not to play with or feed the beluga, as this would keep it dependent on humans. There is also a high risk of injury if he approaches boats and their drive propellers for this reason. It's best to ignore Hvaldimir when he comes swimming up with his ball. Even if it is difficult, in the long term it will help him to finally be able to lead a normal life.
Related to the topic: Fact check on the “showering” rat. Also “sweet”, but also with a serious background
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

