Beluga whale retrieves cell phone, returns it to tourist [video] | Hacker News Reader

Beluga whale retrieves cell phone, returns it to tourist [video]

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And the tourist didn't throw it again? At least one of these two knows how to play fetch

Thats awesome. Reminded me of the Russian Beluga story https://www.livescience.com/65359-beluga-whale-russian-spy.h...

From what I understand, it's the same whale. (Not joking.)

Where/how did you gain this understanding?

This specific whale is famous in Norway

Edit: Found an English article on it here https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/05/03/white-whale-now-name...

It’s a bummer an animal was used the way he was, but very pleasant the locals have embraced him :)

More direct link without all the ads and clutter:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxFlIZpAT7a/?utm_source=ig_embed

"Keep your plastic trash out of my ocean!"

I want one! D: No but... Not sure I could stay in the boat if this happened, there's something with these animals that makes you want to be in there with them. Head says "it's snowing and freezing cold..." body just dives in.

And the human instinct is immediately commercialize it with some group that is probably going out and filing lawsuits on some kids reposing this, its just a guess I do now nothing about them ...

The instinct to want to help seems normal, natural; and examples such as this even seem to serve as a tool for reflection for the face of the modern state of humanity.

right in time to debate specism

I'm sure it's a conspiracy from the sea life lobby

Perhaps but don't draw any conclusions from this animal because it's been trained by humans. Its behavior is not natural.

Or perhaps the animal is so under-stimulated that it is trying to get a repeat on something it finds interesting. It could be just trying to reset the situation in hopes that it will happen again.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Anthropomorphism

I always wonder why it sometimes seems that any kind of animal behavior that resembles human behavior needs to be rationalized away as anthropomorphism. Is it really that far-fetched to assume animals share at least some emotions and behaviors with humans?

In the end, many forms of human behavior and emotions evolved over a long long time, and way before language and culture. Why could a Beluga whale not have also evolved behavior and emotions resembling altruism, for example?

I'm sure some animals have behaviours similar to our altruism. I just don't buy that particular example as a proof of :

> The instinct to want to help seems normal, natural; and examples such as this even seem to serve as a tool for reflection for the face of the modern state of humanity.

Fair enough, that statement may indeed be overreaching a bit ;-)

The whale escaped from some Russian military base and swam to Norway. There is nothing normal or natural about it. Humans caught the whale and taught it what to do for food.

See runeb’s English link in another comment.

But which brand of waterproof smartphone is it? There's a bug in the viral ad.

iPhone

I bet it is trained to do that sort of thing.

It is! It has been trained by (probably) the Russian Navy. It escaped and now lives in Norway.

https://www.newsinenglish.no/2019/05/03/white-whale-now-name...

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