iii ARCTIC
The beluga, or white whale (Delphinapterus leucas), is one of the best known of the toothed whales (Odontoceti). Along with its nearest living relative, the narwhal (Monodon monoceros), it has a long history of economic and cultural importance to the Inuit. For many decades, non-Native commercial wh...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.597.6716 http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/arctic54-3-iii.pdf |
| Summary: | The beluga, or white whale (Delphinapterus leucas), is one of the best known of the toothed whales (Odontoceti). Along with its nearest living relative, the narwhal (Monodon monoceros), it has a long history of economic and cultural importance to the Inuit. For many decades, non-Native commercial whalers also exploited these whales in much of their range. The beluga was one of the first cetacean species brought into captivity, and captive belugas have been used for experimental research on acoustics, physiology, learning, and behaviour. Belugas have also become well known to the general public through oceanarium presentations and television documentaries. In recent years, both belugas and narwhals have been the subjects of field research using new technology. The findings of that research have challenged earlier thoughts about the animals ’ physiological capabilities, their diving and other behaviour, and the ways in which they use their dynamic Arctic environment. This special issue of Arctic is intended to demonstrate the value of new tools recently applied in studies of belugas and narwhals and to reveal some of the exciting insights gained through such applications. In addition to thousands of journal articles and gray-literature reports, three monograph-type books on the beluga are available. Kleinenberg et al. (1969) is based mainly on samples taken from |
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