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A pair of beluga whales amazingly perform in northeast China



A pair of beluga whales in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province have been using their newly-learned tricks to wish visitors a happy Chinese New Year. The two whales, Mira and Nicola, worked hard to learn the new tricks: heart of the ocean, fast rotations and pressing their heads against the glass. One of the tricks was even self-taught, as explained by Zang Mingyue, one of the trainers. "Because we watch them around the clock, we discovered a movement developed by the whales themselves. We found they swim in a different way: pushing their head onto the glass. We thought maybe we can add this movement into the performance to have more visitors enjoy it, and so we did it," said Zang.

One very popular trick is when the whale creates a ring of air bubbles, just like a smoke ring, and then swims through the ring while rotating. "If it learns a new trick, it will do it again and again to practice the movement. Sometimes the whale may show it to another whale, just like saying 'I can do that, can you?'" said Zang. Visitors are amazed by the performances and love to take photos to remember their experience. "I think it really astonished me, and I took many special photos," said Xu Chang, a visitor from Beijing. "I watched the beluga whale performance, it was spectacular," said Li Zhengqi, a visitor from Harbin.

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