Just days after arriving in San Antonio following an international rescue effort, two beluga whales rescued from a shuttered Canadian marine park are already settling into their new home — eating, exploring and slowly making new friends.
SeaWorld San Antonio welcomed 14-year-old Frankie and 6-year-old Bertie Botts earlier this month after they became part of the first group of six beluga whales relocated from Marineland of Canada, a Niagara Falls marine park that closed in 2024. Marineland could no longer provide long-term care for its animals and had threatened to euthanize them.
Now, trainers are carefully introducing the pair to the park’s existing pod of eight beluga whales, allowing the animals to dictate the pace of each new step.
“I will say for me, they have exceeded expectations by far,” said Katie McCullough, curator of animal husbandry at SeaWorld San Antonio. “I already did have high expectations for them, but they’ve exceeded it far beyond. They are doing fantastic.”
The first encouraging sign came just hours after the whales completed the journey from Canada.
After traveling by truck and cargo plane in specialized transport containers while veterinarians and animal care teams monitored them throughout the trip, Frankie and Bertie Botts ate within hours of arriving at the park.
From there, the whales began learning the layout of their new home — a more than 2.5-million-gallon habitat made up of seven interconnected pools filled with chilled saltwater kept between 55 and 60 degrees.
“Our pools are shaped differently than the pools that they are familiar with, so we’re very slowly acclimating them to each of our pools,” McCullough said. “We’re just going to let them into a new room, if you will, usually one day at a time … and let them figure out all the rooms in their new home.”
Once the pair became comfortable navigating their new surroundings, trainers began introducing them to SeaWorld’s resident belugas. SeaWorld San Antonio already housed a multigenerational pod of 8 beluga whales with ages ranging from 2 years old to 40 years old, bringing the total count to 10 with the new additions.
One of their first introductions was with Naluark, a 40-year-old male beluga whale, the park’s largest beluga, chosen because Frankie and Bertie Botts previously lived alongside larger males in Canada.
McCullough compared the first meeting to “a five-year-old soccer game,” with the younger whales happily following Naluark around the habitat.
Additional introductions have followed, but McCullough said every interaction depends on how the animals respond.
“We are going at the animals’ pace,” she said. “If they’re showing us 'we’re a little uncomfortable here,' we’re going to give them time. We’re going to slow it down. We’re going to let them tell us when they’re ready for the next step.”
Guests can already catch glimpses of the rescued whales during behind-the-scenes tours of the beluga habitat, and SeaWorld expects to introduce them into the park’s primary viewing pool in the coming weeks as they continue acclimating.
SeaWorld officials said they have not decided whether the whales will eventually participate in presentations, saying their current focus is on helping the rescued animals acclimate and monitoring their health.
The two whales were among the first animals relocated as part of an international effort to rescue 30 belugas from Marineland after Canadian and U.S. officials approved a plan July 11 to move them to accredited aquariums in the United States and Europe.
SeaWorld San Antonio officials say the pair will continue meeting new pod members over the coming weeks while veterinarians and animal care teams monitor their progress. Additional beluga rescues from Marineland are expected, though officials have not announced when future transfers will occur or how many whales could eventually come to San Antonio.
For now, guests taking behind-the-scenes tours may catch Frankie and Bertie Botts poking their heads above the water before slipping back beneath the surface, a natural behavior known as a “spy hop” that belugas use to observe their surroundings.
This story originally appeared in the San Antonio Report.