Thar she blows.
A resourceful beluga whale is earning props online after devising an ingenious “Moby trick” to retrieve a lost ball that had popped outside its tank. While the clip is from years back, it was posted over the weekend on the Twitter page Fascinating, where it’s since racked up 4.8 million views as of Monday evening.
“How this beluga whale cleverly retrieves his ball,” reads the caption to the now-viral clip of the cetacean’s demonstration of literal outside-the-box thinking.
In the wave-making clip, shot at an undisclosed aquarium, the pale whale can be seen surfacing at the edge of its aquatic holding pen and looking forlornly at a yellow ball sitting on the rim — just out of its reach.
Just when all seems lost, the blubbery brainiac shoots a jet of water at the plaything from its mouth like a sentient firehose. It repeatedly surfaces, its mouth filled water to blast the ball until it bounces off the enclosure wall and within biting range.
The marine mammal then snatches the ball up with its mouth and disappears back into the drink.
Needless to say, the sea creature’s golden retrieval made a giant splash online.
“Man beluga whales feel like the dogs of the sea,” gushed one whale fan. “Smart, friendly. What I wouldn’t give to have a pet beluga whale in my pool.”
“Very smart,” wrote another admirer, while another marveled at the animal’s “problem solving” ability.
However, some armchair animal advocates didn’t appreciate the fact that the beluga was kept in a tank. “As cute as this might be, ultimately it really isn’t because these mammals should not be kept in captivity like this,” declared one displeased critter lover.
Scientists attribute beluga’s seemingly preternatural intelligence to their massive brain, which is nearly the size of a human’s, per the WhaleSanctuaryProject.org. Its gigantic noodle also has more folds in its neocortex (surface area) than its bipedal counterparts, “indicating that the part of their brain that’s involved in problem solving and thinking is highly elaborated,”
In fact, a Beluga whale off Norway has been accused of being a Russian spy after it was found wearing a harness — bringing new meaning to “animal intelligence.”