Baby Bella

On July 17, 2006, the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago welcomed a big new baby-a 5-foot-long, 125-pound beluga whale calf named Bella.

For weeks, trainers at the aquarium took turns watching the calf all day and all night. They cheered when Bella took her first breath of air. Soon after, they saw Bella's mother, Puiji, help nudge the calf down toward her belly, and they cheered again when Bella then rolled her tongue into a straw shape and began to nurse.

The trainers wrote down everything Bella did-when she nursed and for how long, when she swam up to the water's surface to breathe, and when she stayed by Puiji's side.

They even wrote down when she peed and pooped. They'll use all they learn to help other beluga calves survive in aquariums and in the wild.

At first Bella was a wobbly swimmer and didn't know how to steer. So the trainers kept watch with padded poles to gently nudge the calf away from hard pillars in the tank. But Bella learned quickly, and then she enjoyed playfully giving people a scare. "She'd swim full speed at the pillar, then swim away," says trainer Lisa Takaki.

When the calf was a few days old, scuba divers entered her tank to clean the walls. At first, Bella was shy around the visitors and hid behind her mother, but Puiji swam up to the divers to show her calf there was nothing to be scared of.

"If Puiji didn't trust us, she wouldn't let us get near the calf," says Lisa. "She's teaching Bella to live here.

Sure enough, when Bella was three weeks old she began swimming up to the divers and looking them in the eye. She was soon comfortable enough with her human trainers to swim up to them for a pat on the head or to open her mouth for a tongue tickle.

When Bella was four weeks old, the trainers moved a female whale called Naya into her tank. Naya often swam with Bella while Puiji took a rest, and she watched over the calf just as carefully as Puiji did.

Bella loves copying her mom and Auntie Naya. After seeing Puiji push her head and body out of the water, a movement called spyhopping, Bella tried to spyhop herself. She toppled over again and again with a splash, but she kept practicing until she got it right.

Bella watched Puiji swim back and forth with ease through a tunnel connecting their tank with a neighboring tank. But the nervous calf would swim toward the mouth of the tunnel only to swim back again without entering. Belugas naturally fear entering new tunnels because, once inside, they can't surface for a breath of air. Finally, patient Naya hovered at the tunnel's entrance until Bella decided to follow her. Now the calf had a whole new tank to explore!

Puiji and Nay a like to play with the toys that the trainers throw into their tank. But Bella kept far away-until one day when she accidentally brushed against an inner tube. Then she began nudging it shyly. Now she loves to play with toys, biting at a Frisbee or popping up through the middle of the inner tube.

Recently Bella had her first taste of solid food when the fish she was playing with slipped down her throat. She's not big enough to stop nursing, though, and she still has lots to learn. But Puiji and Naya are good teachers. And the trainers try to introduce her to something new every daynew challenges, new toys, or new skills.

For Bella, every day is an adventure!

Copyright Carus Publishing Company Apr 2007
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved