This famous beluga whale has been monitored for four years. But now he’s started doing some really weird stuff.
In 2019, marine biologists located a strange whale on its shores. He had on a harness, and he had a camera. They assure that it is a russian spy whale. Four years later, she has been seen in Sweden, far from her natural area.
Beluga whales are a unique species. Halfway between a whale and a dolphin, They are small, between 4 and 6 meters. They only live in the Arctic, and they are the only whales completely whiteso they are very easy to distinguish.
Belugas are also highly intelligent animals, sociable with humans, and very good swimmers. For this reason they are good candidates to be used as spy animalswhich Russia frequently uses.
Hvaldimir’s story
As we have mentioned, in 2019 it was discovered in Norway a beluga whale with a harness around its body holding a spy cameraand some words written on the harness itself: “Equipment Saint Petersburg“.
Experts believe it is a russian spy whale, who ran away during his training. So she was baptized with the name of Hvaldimir, a play on words between a Norwegian name, and the Russian name Vladimir (Putin).
norwegian biologists they took off her harness and let her go freebut that is a problem. Hvaldimir I had never lived in freedom, so They didn’t know if I could survive. They decided to create an NGO called OneWhale, with the sole objective of protecting this russian spy beluga whale.
You can see her in this video, including the moment she was found with the harness and the spy camera:
During these three years, OneWhale has been tracking Hvaldimir. It’s been all this time moving along the shores of norwayfishing near the country’s salmon farms.
An additional problem is that Hvaldimir is very friendly with humansprobably because he grew up among them, so approaches the boats to be petted and given foodas seen in the video, and already accumulates several scars from the propellers of the ships.
This Russian beluga trained to spyit is news today because has changed his behavior And it worries the experts. After spending 3 years slowly moving along the Norwegian coast, he has been swimming at full speed for months, and has ended up on the shores of Swedenin Hunnebostrand, as reported by Agence France-Presse, via Science Alert.
Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with OneWhale, explains that Hvaldimir he is about 14 years old, that is, is in full youth in the age of these whalesThey live between 40 and 50 years. They assume that he is looking for a partner… but he doesn’t know how to do it.
In these three years in freedom has not contacted any whale of its species, and probably not before either, if it was in captivity. And worst of all is… going in the opposite direction. It’s swimming off the Swedish coast, but the closest group of beluga whales is in the opposite direction, far to the north of Norway.
The story of Hvaldimir, the Russian spy whale, It’s a sad story. A wild animal raised from a young age to serve humans for dark purposes, and that now does not know how to function in freedom.
