Year-old baby beluga whale Nala dies at Vancouver Aquarium
Posted June 22, 2010 1:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – A beluga calf born last summer at the Vancouver Aquarium has died. The aquarium says Nala died last night due to acute respiratory infection, likely caused by a penny and two stones trapped in the whale’s airway.
The aquarium says a necropsy on Nala done overnight (the beluga died at 10:15 p.m.) found the penny and two marble-sized rocks in the airway. Nala was born June 7, 2009, to Aurora, the aquarium’s 20-year-old female beluga
It’s not the first time a whale has died at the facility. Aurora gave birth to a male calf named Tuvaq in the summer of 2002, but he died three years later. There are now five beluga whales remaining at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The Vancouver Aquarium’s preliminary necropsy report can be viewed here.
