Tiqa the baby beluga plays with an American Dipper

A delightful and very touching friendship between a baby Beluga whale and a small bird - an American Dipper - filmed in the Vancouver Aquarium. The baby Beluga calf (I'm told it's Tiqa) spends over four minutes playfully approaching a small bird feeding at the waters edge. It squirts water at the busily feeding bird, opens its jaws, clicks and vocalizes, and gives every evidence of enjoying the encounter. The bird, for its part, seems quite unconcerned, giving no evidence of fear or discomfort, and I guess we can learn that if such diverse creatures can get on so well with each other, shouldn't we humans try just a little harder to do the same.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Beluga Whale
• Vancouver Aquarium
• bird
• playing together
• BFF
• best friends forever
• friendship
• Vancouver
• Tiqa
• American Dipper

[darthd101]

Dude they look like bottle nose dolphins but with a smaller snout

[soundwavs1961c]

This was the best video I ever saw of anything! Amazing. I love Beluga whales. Thanks!!!!!!!

[faythelululemon]

OMG this video is so beautiful!! Thank you plevey for catching this on your camera!!

[RachelBronwyn]

I didn't realise Tiqa's skin colour was still so rough and patchy. I thought she'd settled to a nice, even grey colour by now.

[boxaficionado]

What a cutie!

I work at the Aquarium & I linked your vid in our staff newsletter.

FYI, I just received this message from our senior beluga coordinator:

"Just wanted to let you know that the beluga/bird video is actually of Tiqa, not Nala. Nala pops up near the end to look at the bird, but the main beluga interacting with the bird is Tiqa. Tiqa pretty regularly interacts with birds in her habitat; so far Nala has just shown very passing interest in the birds. "

Thanks again for sharing!

[supermandrin]

that so cute¡¡¡

[SallyAlbatross]

Very Lovely!

[iHeartKyu]

This is a very cute video. Thanks for sharing it.

Other animals know if a different animal is a baby or not. Tiqa in particular seems to watch and squirt water at seagulls.

[RachelBronwyn]

My boyfriend and I wached Tiqa playing with a dipper last time we were at the Aquarium and it was adorable. We've also see the babies spit at and on seagulls. Nice to see they're exposed to other species. It provides them with stimulation and enrichment.

[sparklywindsield88]

Aww! That's so cute!