Household pets like dogs are known to retrieve things for their owners, but it’s not a behavior you usually see in wild animals.
But Ina Mansika got a big surprise when a beluga whale rescued her phone from the sea, and thankfully got the unbelievable moment on camera.
Mansika and her friends were in Hammerfest, Norway and wanted to see if they could spot the famous “Russian spy whale” who had recently made headlines.
As she laid down on the dock in hopes of getting a better glimpse of the alleged former spy, her phone slipped out of her jacket and fell into the water.
“We assumed it would be gone forever, until the whale dove back down and came back a few moments later with my phone in its mouth!” she told The Dodo.
“Everyone was so surprised. We almost didn’t believe what we saw,” she said. “I was super happy and thankful that I got my phone back.”
According to The Dodo, Mansika’s phone was underwater for too long and inoperable, but that didn’t matter. A beluga whale just saved her phone!
This isn’t the first instance of the beluga acting friendly with locals. According to Forbes, Tor Arild Guleng told NRK that he took his boat to see the whale and on his return trip the whale followed him “like an obedient dog walking without a leash.”
According to The Washington Post, officials in Norway are working on transporting the beluga whale to a sanctuary in Iceland, where it will have a better chance at survival.
While it’s hard not to love this friendly beluga whale, it’s important to remember that it’s a wild animal. And its dependence on humans could potentially be a death sentence.
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