AnimalvsAnimal
36 Die Belugawale🐾

Photo: Ekki3 · CC BY 4.0

SpeciesCetaceaMonodontidae
Marine mammals

🐾Beluga whale

Delphinapterus leucas (Pallas, 1776)

Hvidhvalen (Delphinapterus leucas) er en arktisk og subarktisk tandhval.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
17
Photos
6
Measurements
11
vs you
≈ 22× your weight
Also called
Beluga, White Whale, White whale
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2017.

Population trendUnknown
Key measurements
Body mass
1,380 kg
Body length
4.3 m
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
40 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Beluga whale

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
1,380 kgrecord 1,600 kg · SeaLifeBase
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Record: largest individual on record

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1,430 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Body length
4.3 mtypical adult, total length
SeaLifeBase
Other figures ↓

Source: SeaLifeBase · v25.04 · CC BY-NC 4.0

By sex

  • Female4.1 mSeaLifeBasev25.04

Figures vary

  • 4.42 mCOMBINEv1 (Soria et al. 2021)
  • 5.5 mSeaLifeBasev25.04
Brain mass
2,225 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
40 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 40 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Generation length
15 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
5.8 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
1.1 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1.1 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Litter size
1
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Trophic level
Carnivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Crepuscular / mixedestimated
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
1,380 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

estimated = a model's estimate for a species nobody has measured; average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Beluga whale yet: shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classMammalia
  4. ›orderCetacea
  5. ›familyMonodontidae
  6. ›genusDelphinapterus
  7. ›speciesDelphinapterus leucas
Full lineage
  1. classMammals · Mammalia
  2. orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
  3. infraorderWhales & dolphins · Cetacea
  4. genusDelphinapterus
All 15 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammals · Mammalia
  9. subclassTheria
  10. superorderLaurasiatheria
  11. orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
  12. suborderWhippomorpha
  13. infraorderWhales & dolphins · Cetacea
  14. familyMonodontidae
  15. genusDelphinapterus
More

More about the Beluga whale

Closest relative on this site
🐬 Common bottlenose dolphin — last shared an ancestor ≈ 8.8 million years ago.
What it eats
fish60%
insects and other invertebrates40%
In other languages
Weißwal (de), Béluga (fr), Hvidhval (da), Delphinapterus leucas (es), maitovalas (fi), シロイルカ (ja) … and 27 more languages
More photos
36 Die BelugawaleBeluga oceanograficBaby Beluga (32907998406)
All 6 photos in the gallery →

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Scaling lab

How speed, brain and bite scale with body size. This animal isn't in the sample yet.

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Tree of life

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