When a whale or dolphin comes
in for rehabilitation 
the odds are against them,
it’s less than 10% survive. 
And in terms of belugas, it
just has not been attempted
that much.
So I was actually out in the
Cook Inlet
doing a necropsy of another
Cook Inlet beluga whale
And we were leaving the area
when they spotted
what they at first thought was
another carcass
so they went to check it out
and low and behold it was a
live calf.
Their first response was to try 
and see whether it would go back
into the water
but unfortunately, it wouldn't.
Here at the Alaska SeaLife
center, we primarily care for
seals and otters
as well as walrus.
So it’s very unusual for us to
have a beluga here
And there have only been a
few other beluga calves
in North America that have
come in for rehabilitation
So it's extremely unusual.
Fortunately for this calf,
we felt that he had been
with mom for a little while
so he got that initial burst
of antibodies  
and good stuff from mom.
He also had learned some
behaviors,
like he knew how to suckle 
and he very quickly learned
to suckle from a bottle
and so that helped him out
in particular.
(Sucking sound)
The aquaria in the lower 48
have been extremely generous. 
Sending staff and helping 
in numerous ways. 
Yes! Made it all the way
over here.
We had to check him out!
I work with our adult belugas 
at Mystic
but it’s definitely a once in
a lifetime opportunity.
This is my first day in with him
in the water, and it's
it's amazing.
the trust that he has for us
and the willingness of him to
come over
not only for his bottle
but for tactile and just
that interaction is awesome.
Baby beluga!
Well initially, just like any 
kinda sick person,
he was rather punky and didn’t
have a whole lot of energy
he obviously did damage to some
of his muscles,
just bruising and what not from
laying on a beach rather than
floating in the water. 
And he did have pneumonia.
and he very much just kind of
hung out with staff
next to staff
being, you know,
constantly touching staff either
with his peck or his melon
Since then, over time, we’ve 
been able to let him spend more
time on his own
(Beluga breathing)
He also, we can tell he's
when he's moving his head,
he's working on his ecolocation
and exploring
he certainly, interacts a lot
with people and plays
with them
Caring for stranded animals isn’t
just about caring for stranded 
animals.
It’s an opportunity to learn
about the species 
and the pressures going on in
the population in the wild. 
We have definitely learned 
a lot from him.
There have been a couple 
of firsts.
The biggest is
this is the first beluga from
Cook Inlet that we’ve been able
to do a hearing test on.
But it’s also important for the
greater population for scientists
and resource managers
because one of the concerns 
of what might be a pressure 
to the Cook Inlet beluga whales
is their ability to hear in 
what’s a very noisy environment. 
Also just understanding 
what it takes caloric wise.
How many calories he 
needs to be able grow.
That feeds into information
about how much belugas need
to eat,
how much food in the
environment there needs to be.
So you can extrapolate
you can take that information
and apply it to a larger part
of the population
to determine whether that’s 
one of the pressures the 
population is undergoing.
There has been interest across
the nation
and there’s interest in Canada
as well.
They also have a highly
endangered group of beluga whale
in St. Laurence.
And we'll probably be
talking about him for a 
very long time.
(Music)
