Belugas seem to adopt lost narwhals found far from home

A beluga band took a narwhal lost and made it one of their own, said the researchers after discovering the lonely whale swimming and playing with his new friends.

The narwhal was found in the St. Lawrence River, more than 620 miles from its normal habitat, swimming with a dozen St. Lawrence belugas. Narwhals normally live in the Arctic near Canada, Greenland, Russia and Norway, CBC News reported.

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Images of narwhal swimming with belugas were taken with a drone from the Marine Mammal Research and Education Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to whale research.

The GREMM stated that the narwhal was considered a juvenile, swimming with predominantly male belugas.

"He behaves as if he's one of the boys," said Robert Michaud, president and scientific director of GREMM.

The researchers said that the narwhal had adopted a behavior similar to that of the beluga, such as making bubbles. Belugas and narwhals are both social animals, but they do not often interact together in northern waters, according to the researchers.

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The GREMM also thought that the narwhal was the same whale spotted in 2016 and 2017 with a pack of beluga whales. The researchers thought that it was possible that belugas and narwhals would come together in the coming decades to create a "narwhal-beluga hybrid".

"If this young narwhal spends his life with beluga whales, we will have a lot of information to learn and share," Michaud said. "I hope I'll be here to see him."