Mauyak, the 'one-of-a-kind' beluga whale who gave birth to four calves at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, died at the age of 41 over the weekend.
Shedd Aquarium's 14-year-old beluga whale Bella gave birth to a 139-pound male calf after almost 15 hours of labor.Mauyak, the 41-year-old beluga whale matriarch and one of the most popular animals at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, died over the weekend,The whale, whose name means "soft snow" in the indigenous language of Inuit, arrived in Chicago in 1997 after coming from the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington.
Since her arrival, she gave birth to four calves. Although she was relatively small for a whale at 11-feet long and 1,500 pounds, the aquarium said she was"large in impact," as researchers tracking her pregnancies were able to use data to more accurately identify pregnant whales in the wild. "She was a very independent whale, extremely playful and was an attentive mom to her calves," Peggy Sloan, chief animal operations officer for Shedd,."The matriarch of our beluga pod, her passing is heartbreaking to everyone who loves beluga whales.
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