(14 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago- 13 February 2025
1. Beluga calf in pool
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Jacobsma, Director of animal behavior and training at Shedd Aquarium:
"The youngest member of our pod was born here in July and he was born to his , mother , Naya , and he came and he’s been spending a lot of time with our animal care staff behind the scenes right now, growing and developing and getting really strong."
3. Beluga calf being fed fish
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Jacobsma, Director of animal behavior and training at Shedd Aquarium:
"This birth happened and it happened in the evening, animal care staff was called in right away as soon as we saw it. Most of the staff was actually already here so everybody was around the area and ready to assist if we needed to for any reason."
5. Jacobsma looking down at beluga calf
6. Jacobsma petting beluga calf’s mouth
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Jacobsma, Director of animal behavior and training at Shedd Aquarium:
"Everything we know about these belugas is stuff that we’ve learned in zoos and aquariums, if you think about , it in the wild they’re in ice packs and they’re in these remote areas that are harder to research and develop. Here at Shed we have morphometrics that we gather all the time and our animals are trained voluntarily to participate in their own health care and a part of that is voluntary ultrasounds. Those ultrasounds help us to monitor birth and and along that we can also monitor the birth, we can monitor the size, we can monitor how mom, how big mom is getting as well."
8. Various of Jacobsma petting beluga calf
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Jacobsma, Director of animal behavior and training at Shedd Aquarium:
"So I think the most important thing that we’re doing is really trying to be good stewards of the earth and good stewards of the animals and how can we teach people and how can we connect with people to really care about that and to understand it."
10. Beluga calf fish meal on ice
11. Jacobsma petting beluga calf
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Charlie Jacobsma, Director of animal behavior and training at Shedd Aquarium:
"They love tongue tickles, Belugas love tongue tickles and that is probably one of the craziest things about belugas, I don’t know who the first person was to put their hand in a beluga’s mouth to figure it out, but it’s very sensitive in their mouth probably from the prey that they eat on the bottom of the ocean. They’ll grab clams and they’ll crush them and they’ll figure out what exactly is in their mouth and they really love that, It’s almost like petting a dog or a cat and you’ll see them come up and want to interact with us and open up their mouth wide for those tongue tickles."
13. Jacobsma cleaning up beluga calf toys
STORYLINE:
Charlie Jacobsma slapped the surface of a pool enclosure at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and scanned the water for movement.
Moments later, the head of a beluga calf emerged, mouth agape in what looked like a smile. Jacobsma’s face lit up in response as he cooed to the calf like a human parent to a toddler.
Shedd’s animal care team described its newest resident, born to 35-year-old resident beluga Naya in July 2024, as just that.
“Like a toddler that’s learning to talk and making noises, he’s the same way," said Jacobsma, director of animal behavior and training at Shedd. "He’s just constantly growing and developing.”
The calf received several herrings from Jacobsma, who noted the baby whale has yet to grow in his teeth.
Tongue tickles.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/03476d86c7ef41ce9db218fd162c9f52
Author: AP Archive
Go to Source
News post in February 19, 2025, 6:05 pm.
Visit Our Sponsor’s:
News Post In – News
