Ever see a whale fetch a rugby ball? Well, your answer won’t be “no” for much longer…
Belugas are one of the smallest whales, but that doesn’t mean they’re actually small, as they grow to around 18 feet long and weigh upwards of 3,000 pounds. They live throughout Arctic regions and are known as one of the smartest animals on the planet, their brains comparable to a dolphin and we know how smart those guys can be.
For many years there’s been reports that the Russian Military has been attempting to train belugas to perform certain tasks, such as retrieving objects, similar to how the US and other countries have trained dolphins and seals to detect mines and defend certain locations, but there’s been little actual information surrounding the Russian program.
That is, until this video surfaced and now pretty much everyone believes there’s something going on with Belugan Russkies.
A group of South African rugby fans took a trip to Norway, near the Arctic Pole (for whatever reason) and brought with them an official ball from the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which South Africa won, so you would think this particular ball would be special to them and they wouldn’t go around tossing it to giant sea creatures.
But as you may guess, that’s exactly what they wound up doing.
A seemingly friendly beluga whale approached the side of their boat and one of the guys had the bright idea to fire the rugby ball out into the water and see what happens.
Well, seemingly right on cue, the beluga went and retrieved the ball, bringing it back to the man for him to throw again.
That’s right; this dude started playing fetch with a beluga whale.
I mean, this is a feat I would put on my resume for all future employers to behold. So what if it doesn’t relate to the job he’s applying for, he got a beluga whale to play fetch, I’m sure he could figure out your inside sales CRM platform.
An Instagram account provided a description of where they believe this Beluga got it’s training:
“This beluga whale is Hvaldimir. In 2019, Hvaldimir showed up in northern Norway wearing a harness, labeled “St. Petersburg equipment,” that seemed designed to hold a camera.
Because of the inscription, along with past reports that the Russian navy was utilizing beluga whales in its military programs, people assumed the whale had escaped during Russian military operations.”
No matter how it learned, it’s an impressively intelligent feat and more proof that wildlife may be much smarter than we believe.
