What is a beluga’s melon?

The fatty forehead that shapes its sounds

How do scientists work out a beluga’s age?

By counting yearly layers in its teeth

Beluga Whale

Delphinapterus leucas

The beluga or white whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is a medium-sized toothed whale of Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. Adults are white, with a soft, bulging forehead called the melon, a flexible neck and a low ridge instead of a dorsal fin. Its only close living relative is the narwhal, and its many whistles and chirps earned it the nickname “canary of the sea”.

Also known as Beluga, White whale, Sea canary

Beluga abilities

5 melon shapesStill debated
Belugas are the only toothed whales known to visibly change the shape of their forehead. Scientists think it works like a facial expression, and it may also help aim sound.
- In a 2024 aquarium study, belugas made melon shapes 34 times more often during social encounters, and 94% of them in view of another whale.
- Researchers named five shapes: flat, lift, press, push and shake. The shake is mostly made by males courting a female.
- A computer model built from CT scans shows how the fatty melon beams sound forward. Whether changing its shape steers that beam is still being studied.
Melon shapes per minute
During social encounters1.72
Outside social encounters0.05
2,570 shapes counted from four aquarium belugas.
Sources [1, 2, 3]
80 m target range in noise tests
Belugas send out clicks and listen for the echoes to hunt and find their way, even in murky water or under the ice.
- One beluga moved from a quiet bay in San Diego to a noisier one in Hawaii made its clicks about an octave higher and up to 18 dB louder.
- In tests with background noise, a beluga picked out echoes much fainter than a bottlenose dolphin could, from metal balls up to 80 m away.
- Wild belugas off Greenland aim a beam only about 5° wide and sweep it up and down. Scientists think a narrow beam cuts out echoes from the ice and helps them find breathing holes.
- The clicks come from the right-hand pair of phonic lips under the blowhole.
Peak click pitch of one beluga
Noisy bay (Kaneohe, Hawaii)100–120 kHz
Quieter bay (San Diego)40–60 kHz
The same whale, measured in two places (1985).
Sources [1, 4, 14, 18, 19]
41 call types in one population
Whistles, chirps, squeals, moos and clicks: belugas are so noisy that sailors long ago nicknamed them “sea canaries”.
- Scientists sorted 1,633 calls from Cook Inlet belugas into 41 types, most of them whistles.
- A calf at the Vancouver Aquarium called within an hour of birth, whistled at 2 weeks, and by 20 months its main call closely resembled its mother’s.
- Belugas briefly trapped in a shallow channel of an Arctic estuary used many different contact calls, possibly “signatures” that tell others who is calling.
- Some calls are ultrasonic, reaching at least 144 kHz. St Lawrence belugas kept using them when boats were near, while other calls dropped.
- In 2012, scientists published recordings of a beluga that spontaneously mimicked human voices.
Cook Inlet beluga calls (1,633 recorded)
Whistles77%
Pulsed calls22%
Combined calls1%
Sources [1, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24]
Unfused neck bones
Most whales have neck bones that are fused together. A beluga’s are not, so it can nod and turn its head to look around.
- It can move its head up, down and from side to side.
- Scientists think this helps it manoeuvre and catch prey in muddy or ice-covered water.
- Scientists say the beluga also has the most mobile face of any toothed whale, thanks to its shape-changing melon.
Sources [1, 3, 12]
≈690 km travelled under sea ice
No dorsal fin, just a tough ridge. NOAA says this lets belugas swim easily under floating ice.
- In the far north, belugas hunt under sea ice that can cover 90–100% of the surface.
- They have been documented travelling up to about 690 km (430 miles) under the ice from open water.
- Scientists think their narrow sonar beam helps them find cracks and breathing holes in the pack ice.
- The ice has risks: if the cracks freeze over, belugas can be trapped at small breathing holes, where polar bears hunt them.
Sources [1, 4, 12, 13]
2–3× faster skin growth than other mammals
In summer many belugas gather in shallow estuaries and rub on gravel and rocks to scrub off old, yellowish skin.
- At Cunningham Inlet in the Canadian Arctic, peak counts reached 762 to 1,741 belugas a summer. They stayed 27–38 days, rubbing all their skin on mud, pebbles and sharp limestone.
- Warm, less salty river water softens the old outer skin, and scientists think rubbing speeds up the moult.
- Beluga skin cells multiply 2–3 times faster than any rate reported for other whales or land mammals.
- All ages rub, except newborn calves and their mothers.
Sources [1, 16, 25]
900+ m deepest dives recorded
Belugas often feed in shallow water, but satellite-tagged belugas have dived deeper than 900 m in the Arctic Ocean.
- In the deep Canada Basin, tags recorded daily maximum dives of more than 900 m. In the western Beaufort Sea they dived most often to 200–300 m, where Arctic cod are most common.
- Most dives last less than 18 minutes, though some reach 21 minutes. NOAA says dives can last up to 25 minutes.
- Many deep dives go straight down to the seabed and back up, probably to feed.
- In 1984 a trained beluga dived to 647 m, then the deepest measured dive of any marine mammal.
Deepest recorded dives
Beluga (wild, tagged)900+ m
Beluga (trained, 1984)647 m
Narwhal≈1,200 m
Narwhal figure from NOAA Fisheries.
Sources [1, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31]

Tap a pin on the model or a part below.

5 melon shapes seen
- The melon is the soft, fatty bulge on the forehead. It shapes and aims the beluga’s sounds, including its echolocation clicks.
- Belugas are the only toothed whales known to visibly change the shape of their head. Scientists have named five melon shapes: flat, lift, press, push and shake.
- Its big, round head sends out a narrow sound beam: about 5° from top to bottom in wild belugas off Greenland.
Sources [1, 2, 3, 4]
- NOAA says belugas see sharply both in and out of the water.
- In very silty water, such as Cook Inlet in Alaska in summer, they can see little and rely on sound instead.
- In a 2026 aquarium study, two of four belugas inspected themselves in a mirror and one passed a “mark test”: early evidence that belugas may recognise themselves.
Sources [1, 5]
150 kHz highest pitch heard
- Hearing is a toothed whale’s main sense. Seven wild belugas tested in Alaska all heard sounds up to at least 128 kHz, and two heard up to 150 kHz.
- They heard best between about 45 and 80 kHz.
- Toothed whales are thought to pick up sound mainly through the lower jaw. In one beluga that was tested, the most sensitive spot was the tip of the lower jaw.
Sources [6, 7]
32–40 teeth
- A beluga has 32 to 40 simple teeth, but it swallows its prey whole. Suction is its main way of catching food near the seabed.
- It can purse its lips into a small round opening. In tests, belugas made suction of up to 126 kPa.
- Each tooth adds one growth layer a year, like a tree ring, so scientists count the layers to find a beluga’s age.
- On the menu: fish such as Arctic cod, salmon, herring and capelin, plus squid, octopus, shrimp, crabs and worms.
Sources [1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12]
- Belugas breathe through the blowhole on top of the head. Sometimes only the blowhole breaks the surface, a trick called “snorkelling”.
- They spend only about 4–7% of their time at the surface.
- Below the blowhole are two pairs of “phonic lips” that make sounds. Belugas click with the right pair and make whistles and most other calls with the left.
Sources [13, 14]
Unfused neck bones
- Unlike most whales, a beluga’s neck bones are not fused together.
- So it can nod and turn its head up, down and from side to side.
- This may help it manoeuvre and catch prey in silty or ice-covered water.
Sources [1, 12]
- Short, broad and paddle-shaped.
- In older males the flipper tips curve upwards.
- Males can grow up to 25% longer than females.
Sources [12]
0 dorsal fins
- No dorsal fin, just a tough, narrow ridge along the back.
- Its scientific name means “white dolphin without a fin”: Delphinapterus is “dolphin without a fin (or wing)” and leucas comes from the word for white.
- NOAA says the finless back lets belugas swim easily under sheets of floating ice.
- In spring the back often looks yellowish. That old skin comes off during the summer moult.
Sources [1, 12, 15, 16]
- A broad tail fluke with a deep notch in the middle.
- Belugas are slow swimmers that often ride the currents, and they rarely lift the tail out of the water when they dive.
- Tagged wild belugas swam down at up to about 2.5 m every second.
Sources [8, 12, 17]
up to 40% of its weight
- A thick layer of blubber, up to about 13 cm thick, keeps a beluga warm and stores energy.
- Blubber can make up 40% of a beluga’s weight.
- Newborn calves don’t have thick blubber yet, so mothers give birth in warmer, shallow estuaries.
Sources [1, 13]

Real belugas

Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Some of them can repaint the 3D model.

AdultPure white. Before the summer moult the skin on the back can look yellowish.Fully white in the teens: after about 14 years in females and 18 in males (estimates vary)Adult beluga in the Churchill River, Hudson Bay, Canada. Photo: Ansgar Walk, CC BY-SA 2.5
A summer gathering near Churchill, ManitobaPhoto: Ansgar Walk, CC BY 2.5
Calf (with mother)Born brown or slate-grey, about 1.6 m long and 78 kg.Stays close to its mother and drinks milk for at least 2 yearsMother and grey calf in the St Lawrence, Quebec. Photo: Saucoin, CC BY-SA 4.0
Calf (with mother)Born brown or slate-grey, about 1.6 m long and 78 kg.Stays close to its mother and drinks milk for at least 2 yearsAdult female with her dark calf in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Photo: Janice Waite, NOAA, Public domain
JuvenileBlue-grey at first, then grey, slowly turning paler year by year.From about 2 years old until adulthood; many females are still light grey when they first breedA grey beluga: grey skin is a sign of a young animal (Vancouver Aquarium). Photo: Jerzy Strzelecki, CC BY 3.0
The melon and the flexible neck (Vancouver Aquarium)Photo: Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0
From above you can see there is no dorsal finPhoto: Kristin Laidre, Polar Science Center, University of Washington (NOAA Photo Library), Public domain
Tail fluke in the St Lawrence at Tadoussac, QuebecPhoto: Luca Galuzzi, CC BY-SA 2.5
Belugas in the Naknek River, AlaskaPhoto: Katmai National Park and Preserve, Public domain
Side view underwater (Vancouver Aquarium)Photo: iwona_kellie (Flickr), CC BY 2.0

Beluga by the numbers

Measured by scientists and wildlife agencies.

Length: 3.5–5.5 m; adults; males up to 25% longer than females⁠[12]
Weight: up to 1,500 kg; adult males are the biggest⁠[12, 13]
Newborn: ≈1.6 m; and about 78 kg at birth; Grows to 3.5–5.5 m⁠[12]
Deepest dive: 900+ m; satellite-tagged belugas, Arctic Ocean⁠[26, 30]; Wild beluga900 mTrained beluga (1984)647 m
Breath-hold: up to 25 min; most dives last less than 18 min⁠[1, 27, 28]
Teeth: 32–40; each adds one growth layer a year⁠[1, 10]
Blubber: up to 40%; of body weight; up to about 13 cm thick⁠[1, 13]
Hearing: up to 150 kHz; all 7 wild belugas tested heard at least 128 kHz⁠[6]
Lifespan: 60–80+ yrs; from yearly tooth layers; the most counted is 80⁠[10, 12, 1]
Worldwide: ≈150,000–200,000; in 21 known stocks; estimates vary⁠[8, 34]

Beluga myths and facts

Tap Myth or Fact for each claim, then check the answer.

0 of 8 answered

“Belugas are white from birth.”
“Belugas are dolphins.”
“Beluga caviar comes from beluga whales.”
“A beluga once imitated human voices.”
“Belugas can’t turn their heads.”
“Belugas only live in icy Arctic seas.”
“Belugas change their skin every summer.”
“Belugas only live about 25–30 years.”

Beluga records

Superlatives and record holders, each checked against its source.

Deepest measured dive of its time
647 m
A trained white whale
In 1984, the deepest measured dive of any marine mammal, apart from sperm whales tangled in deep-sea cables⁠[30]
Deepest wild beluga dives
900+ m
Satellite-tagged belugas
Canada Basin, Arctic Ocean⁠[26]
Biggest beluga population
≈54,500
Western Hudson Bay, Canada
counted from the air in 2015; Hudson Bay has the largest summer gathering in the world⁠[34, 40]
First whale shown to copy human voices on its own
2012
A white whale
recordings published in Current Biology⁠[24]
Fastest-growing skin measured
2–3×
Belugas
skin-cell growth faster than any rate reported for other whales or land mammals⁠[16]
Oldest mother-to-be on record in north-west Alaska
70 yrs
A wild female beluga
the oldest female studied there was carrying a calf almost ready to be born⁠[1]
Only known beluga–narwhal hybrid
1
A skull from West Greenland
found in 1990; DNA showed a narwhal mother and a beluga father (2019)⁠[41]

Life of a beluga

From a grey newborn to a white adult that can live 60 years or more.

Summer, day 1
Born in warm water
Calves are born in summer in shallow estuaries, where the water is warmer. A newborn is brown or slate-grey, about 1.6 m long and 78 kg.⁠[1, 12]
First hour
First calls
An aquarium calf called within an hour of being born and started to whistle at 2 weeks old.⁠[21]
0–2 years
Milk, then fish
Calves drink milk for at least 2 years and start eating fish and other animals after their first year.⁠[1, 12]
≈2 years
Blue-grey to grey
The blue-grey calf becomes a grey juvenile. In French, these young belugas are called “bleuvets”.⁠[8]
6–14 years
Grown up
Females can breed from about 6–14 years old; males mature a little later. Many females are still light grey.⁠[1, 12]
14–18 years
Pure white
The last grey fades: after about 14 years in females and 18 in males.⁠[12]
Every 2–3 years
A new calf
A pregnancy lasts about 14–15 months, and a mother has one calf every 2–3 years.⁠[1, 12]
60–80+ years
A long life
Tooth layers show belugas can live 60 years or more. Like killer whales and people, females can live on for years after their last calf.⁠[10, 12, 42, 1]

Beluga migration

Most belugas travel between winter areas near the sea ice and summer estuaries. A few small populations stay in one area all year.

2,400+ km
Bering Sea to the Mackenzie Delta
Some belugas swim more than 2,400 km (1,500 miles) between winter in the Bering Sea and summer waters off Canada’s Mackenzie River delta.⁠[13]
Same place
every summer
Belugas return to the same summer areas year after year. Related belugas travel together, which may help young whales learn the routes.⁠[1, 12, 43]
2–4+ weeks
later autumn trips
As sea ice forms later in the year, one Alaskan population now starts its autumn migration 2 to more than 4 weeks later than in the 1990s.⁠[44]
76%
of travel hours with a feeding dive
Belugas keep eating on the road: tagged whales made at least one feeding dive in 75.8% of their travelling hours.⁠[45]
Year-round
stay-at-home groups
Belugas in Cook Inlet, Cumberland Sound and the St Lawrence Estuary stay in or near the same area all year.⁠[34, 12]

Are beluga whales endangered?

Belugas as a species are not threatened, but several small populations are in trouble, and noise, pollution and a warming Arctic are growing problems.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern (LC)

Trend unknown

Roughly 150,000–200,000 belugas live in 21 known stocks. Some are stable, but for many the trend is unknown, and the small Cook Inlet, St Lawrence and Cumberland Sound groups have been declining. A stock off south-west Greenland was probably wiped out more than 80 years ago. In Canada, the St Lawrence belugas (about 1,850 in 2023) are listed as endangered.⁠[46, 8, 34, 47]

IUCN Red List, 2017 assessment.

Threats

Noise35–50 km
Belugas panicked when icebreakers were still 35–50 km away and moved up to 80 km off. Ship noise also drowns out calls: scientists estimate a newborn’s quiet calls carry only about 170 m in boat noise.⁠[33, 48, 20]
Warming Arctic5–10 weeks
Between 1979 and 2013, the season with little sea ice grew 5–10 weeks longer in most Arctic regions. As the ice opens up, killer whales, which hunt belugas, now reach Hudson Bay every summer.⁠[49, 50]
Pollution
Chemicals build up in belugas’ blubber. The St Lawrence population lives beside a busy shipping route and a heavily polluted river basin, and pollution is one of the threats slowing its recovery.⁠[1, 12, 51]
Past overhunting1,300 → 279
Cook Inlet belugas fell by nearly 80% between 1979 and 2018, most likely because of too much hunting for such a small group. Hunting there has been stopped.⁠[1]

What’s helping

Legal protection7,800 km²
Cook Inlet belugas have been listed as endangered in the United States since 2008, with 7,800 km² of protected “critical habitat” since 2011.⁠[1, 52]
Keeping a distance400 m
In Canada, boats must stay 400 m from St Lawrence belugas. In the United States, NOAA asks people to stay at least 100 yards (about 90 m) away.⁠[47, 1]
Working with hunters
Indigenous hunters and scientists manage beluga hunts together, for example through the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, set up in 1988. Catch limits in West Greenland seem to be helping that stock recover.⁠[13, 12]
Cleaner water
After toxic chemicals such as PCBs were regulated, fewer adult St Lawrence belugas had cancer.⁠[51]
Citizen science
In Alaska, volunteers report beluga sightings, help with photo-ID studies and join the yearly Belugas Count! event.⁠[53]

Populations and relatives to watch

Cook Inlet belugas (Alaska)Critically Endangered
Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and endangered under US law. The latest estimate of about 331 whales suggests the population may be stabilising, but it is far below the roughly 1,300 of 1979.⁠[34, 1]
Narwhal (closest relative)Least Concern
Least Concern overall, but some narwhal stocks, such as those in Melville Bay and East Greenland, are of high concern.⁠[54, 34]

Beluga vs narwhal

The beluga and the narwhal are the only two living members of the family Monodontidae: Arctic toothed whales without a dorsal fin.

Beluga whale vs narwhal: colour, teeth, size, diving and status
	Beluga	Narwhal
Scientific name⁠[34]	Delphinapterus leucas	Monodon monoceros
Adult colour⁠[12, 31]	Pure white	Whitish with black mottling
Newborn⁠[12, 31]	Brown or slate-grey, ≈1.6 m	Brownish-grey, ≈1.5 m
Teeth⁠[1, 31]	32–40 simple teeth	2 in the upper jaw; in most males the left grows into a tusk up to ≈3 m
Dorsal fin⁠[1, 31]	None, just a ridge	None, just a ridge
Length⁠[12, 31]	3.5–5.5 m	up to ≈4.2 m (females), ≈4.8 m (males)
Weight⁠[12, 31]	up to 1,500 kg	up to ≈1,000 kg (females), ≈1,600 kg (males)
Deepest dives⁠[26, 31, 55]	900+ m	≈1,200 m; in winter some spend over 3 h a day below 800 m
Where⁠[12, 8, 31]	Arctic and sub-Arctic, south to the St Lawrence	Mostly the Atlantic side of the Arctic
Menopause⁠[42, 1]	Yes	Yes
IUCN status⁠[46, 54]	Least Concern	Least Concern

Only one beluga–narwhal hybrid is known: see the records above.

Beluga quiz

12 questions. Every answer is somewhere on this page.

Question 1 of 12Score 0

Why are belugas called “canaries of the sea”?

Beluga Whale field notes

Diet, food web, safety and badges from the Snappit field guide.

Diet & Feeding

These marine mammals enjoy eating fish, squid, and crustaceans from the cold ocean floor.

Primary Foods

Cod
Halibut
Shrimp
Squid
Crab
Foraging Method: Foraging

Ecological connections

OrcaEaten by
Major predator in open waters.
Polar BearEaten by
Preys on belugas trapped in ice openings.
Arctic CodHunts
One of the fish belugas eat, along with salmon, herring and capelin.

Safety

Danger 1/5 · Very low

Avoid close contact — they are large wild animals. Watch from far away and never touch or feed a beluga.

Traits

Collections

Mammals

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Monodontidae
Genus: Delphinapterus

Also known as

Beluga · White whale · Sea canary · Melonhead · Belukha (Russian)

Sources for these beluga facts

55 studies and references · checked Oct 16, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

How to identify Beluga Whale?

Compare ears, muzzle, tail, feet and coat markings. Size is hard to judge without something nearby for scale, and young mammals may not have adult coloring yet. Mammal Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

How long is Beluga Whale?

350-550 cm

How much does Beluga Whale weigh?

1000-1500 kg

How long does Beluga Whale live?

35-80 years

What does Beluga Whale eat?

These marine mammals enjoy eating fish, squid, and crustaceans from the cold ocean floor.

Where is Beluga Whale usually found?

Cold Arctic and sub-Arctic seas.

How does Beluga Whale hunt?

Foraging

How many babies does Beluga Whale usually have?

Why are belugas called canaries of the sea?

Because they are so noisy. Belugas whistle, chirp, squeal, moo and click, and sailors long ago nicknamed them “sea canaries”. One study sorted the calls of Cook Inlet belugas into 41 types.

Are beluga whales dangerous to people?

We found no scientific reports of wild belugas attacking people. But they are big wild animals, up to 1,500 kg, and getting close disturbs them. Watch from a distance: NOAA asks for at least 100 yards (about 90 m) in the US, and Canada requires 400 m from St Lawrence belugas. Never touch or feed one.

When do belugas turn white?

Slowly. Newborns are brown or slate-grey, turn blue-grey and then grey, and fade to pure white after about 14 years in females and 18 in males. St Lawrence researchers count belugas as white adults from about 8–12 years.

How deep can belugas dive?

Satellite-tagged wild belugas have dived deeper than 900 m in the Arctic Ocean. Most dives last less than 18 minutes, and NOAA says they can last up to 25 minutes.

How long do belugas live?

Belugas can live 60 years or more. Each tooth adds one growth layer a year, and the most layers counted in a beluga tooth is 80. A 70-year-old female in Alaska was even pregnant.

Are beluga whales endangered?

Not as a species: the IUCN lists the beluga as Least Concern. But the Cook Inlet population in Alaska, about 331 whales, is Critically Endangered, and Canada lists the St Lawrence belugas as endangered.

What is the difference between a beluga and a narwhal?

They are cousins in the same family, Monodontidae. Adult belugas are white and have 32–40 teeth. Narwhals are mottled and have just two teeth; in most males the left one grows into a tusk up to about 3 m long.

Is beluga caviar made from beluga whales?

No. Beluga caviar is made from the eggs of the beluga sturgeon (Huso huso), a fish that is now Critically Endangered.