Alaska's Beluga Whales Have Wild Sex Lives—and It Keeps Them Alive

Alaska's Beluga Whales Have Wild Sex Lives—and It Keeps Them Alive

A recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science says that an isolated beluga whale society in Bristol Bay, Alaska, is breaking the binary of its mating systems, eschewing the usual choice between lifelong monogamy and freewheeling sexual Baconalia. And it seems to be doing pretty well for itself. Researchers studying this small, long-isolated group of about 2,000 belugas expected to find low genetic diversity. There are so few of them, a…