Birthdate: July 17th 2006
Born at: Shedd Aquarium
Relatives: mother Puiji, father Naluark, the brother Nunavik and the halfbrothers Miki and Naya's calf (deceased)
Bella
was born on July 17th 2006 at Shedd Aquarium and is the daughter of
Puiji and Naluark. At birth she measured about 1,7 meters and weighed about 57
kilograms. When Bella was a few weeks old she met Naya for the first time and
soon she also began to drink milk from Naya. After a while she also met Kayavak
and later she met the rest of the belugas at Shedd Aquarium; Naluark, Qannik
(who passed away in 2009 at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium) and Mauyak. When
Bella was newborn it was thought that she was a male and it was in October 2006
it was discovered that she actually was a female. At that time Bella measured
about 1,8 meters and weighed 117,5 kilograms.
When Bella turned 1 year old she was celebrated with a cake and about one month later her halfbrother, Miki, was born. In August/September 2008 Bella and Miki along with Kayavak were the first belugas that were moved to Mystic Marine Life Aquarium from Shedd Aquarium as Shedd Aquarium’s beluga centre was going to be re-built. The rest of Shedd Aquarium’s belugas and pacific white-sided dolphins were soon moved to Mystic Aquarium too and when they lived there you could watch Bella and the other belugas at Mystic Marine Life Aquarium’s web cam. Bella and the other cetaceans from Shedd Aquarium were moved back to Shedd Aquarium in May 2009.
Bella is grey as all beluga calves and if you see her being trained you can look for her green triangle. All of Shedd Aquarium cetaceans are trained with symbols and everyone of them have their own symbol that they have learned to recognize. In 2007 Bella weighed 226,8 kilograms and measured 2,1 meters.
In the beginning of March 2010 Bella was introduced to her little brother Nunavik who was born in December 2009 and today she lives together with him, their mother Puiji, their halfbrother Miki and the female Naya while Shedd Aquarium's three other belugas are participating in the show "Fantasea".