at some point in the reblog chain somebody removed the caption, which read this: A young polar bear cub filmed over the first 83 days of her life, via Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. from a quick Google, the Columbus Zoo is an active part of Polar Bear conservation, this cub’s name is Kulu!
this is a very sweet video from a good source! always support accredited zoos. ignore the guy in the notes talking about zoos being evil prisons or whatever, they do amazing work for conservation and without them species like the California Condor would be long extinct.
Do they not have skulls!? Why is it mushy there!?!? @bunjywunjy
well of course beluga has a skull!! that’s just not where it is.
see, you wouldn’t necessarily pick up on this, but beluga skulls (and most cetacean skulls in general) are pretty much
flat…
so what’s going on up there? well, most of the beluga’s head is taken up by soft tissue and a large organ called the melon, which is basically a big ol waterballoon of semiliquid fat!
(boob. it’s a head boob.)
this organ is found in every toothed whale and dolphin species on the planet and it’s INCREDIBLY important, because the melon is what lets them echolocate!
the actual sound-producing organ is inside their nasal passage of all places, which sits up behind there, but the melon is what’s actually used to fine-tune the soundwaves into the laser-accurate pinpoints that dolphins and toothed whales are so famous for.
tldr: without their head boob, belugas and their relatives would be literally flying blind!
does slapping the melon like that hurt it ? like does it affect how it works or anything
@weirdgirlwambsgans@vampire-juicebox you guys are in luck bc it does not! Belugas will squish their melons voluntarily against things like rocks and glass. Think of it like when you squish your butt (but at the same time not, bc they have no nerve endings beyond the skin) they even voluntarily let humans play with it!
This is a strong creature, if that hurt or bothered it, you would know
