Show caption ‘What’s extraordinary to us is that this animal has been lucky enough to find friends,’ said Robert Michaud. Photograph: Group for research and education on marine mammals (GREMM) Whales ‘One of the boys’: lost narwhal finds new home with band of beluga whales Researchers in Quebec discovered the narwhal, over 100km outside its typical range, was playing with the whales Greg Mercer Thu 13 Sep 2018 16.07 EDT Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share via Email 2 years old

Whale researchers in Quebec’s St Lawrence River are celebrating a remarkable discovery: a juvenile narwhal far from its arctic home, that appears to have been adopted by a band of beluga whales.

The narwhal, more than 1,000km outside its typical range, was filmed by a drone swimming and playing with dozens of belugas that were treating it as one of their own.

With its long, spiral tusk and spotted grey skin, the narwhal stands out from the pack of white St Lawrence River belugas. But its cousins don’t seem to mind, rubbing up against the narwhal and playing sexual games common among young male whales.



Although both are highly social animals, narwhals and belugas don’t typically interact when they meet in more northern waters.



Belugas generally live in more northern waters, but a fluke of evolution means a branch of the species remained in the St Lawrence River after the last ice age. While they’re closely related to narwhals, they do have different hunting and ranging habits.