Original subtitles

SIGOURNEY: There's only one truly white whale.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Like a ghost.

(SQUEAKING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: And just as mysterious.

Beluga whales smile...

show emotion with facial expressions.

(WHALES SINGING, SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: They have one of the largest vocabularies in the ocean.

And may even give themselves names.

(WHALE CREAKING)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: Now we join them... like never before.

As this family begins an adventure...

that follows an ancient road map.

A dangerous journey...

(SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: ...where strangers become friends...

safety lies in numbers...

and traditions only survive

if the young listen to their elders...

and learn their secrets.

(CONTINUOUS WHISTLING)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(SEAGULLS SQUAWKING)

SIGOURNEY: Belugas are some of the most social animals on the planet.

They are toothed whales,

like dolphins...

and their arctic cousins, narwhals.

(WHALE BLOWING)

Belugas are the only whales that can turn their heads like we can.

-They have their own language... -(WHALES WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: ...deep family bonds...

(WHISTLING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: ...and age-old traditions.

(WHALE SQUEAKS)

SIGOURNEY: These belugas have promises to keep.

But some of those promises put them in danger.

(EPIC MUSIC PLAYING)

This beluga family begins a journey to a reunion it can't miss.

It's an annual pilgrimage from Greenland to the Canadian Arctic.

Ahead lies nearly a thousand miles of unforgiving ocean.

The oldest sister has a baby of her own.

It's best they all stay together.

The spring thaw opens ancient pathways.

But belugas breathe air like we do. If the ice closes above them,

they will drown.

So the beluga stay in close touch as they work through the maze.

(WATER CRASHING)

(WHALES SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: Adults may be 13 to 20 feet long...

but they can still disappear.

(SCREECHING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: They use special calls to keep tabs on everyone in the murk...

maybe even individual names.

The baby shares its mother's call.

(WHALE SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: After a few hundred miles, they reach open water.

But here, they face an even greater danger.

Orcas hunt beluga whales...

and orcas can hear them talk.

It calls for new tactics.

(WHALE SQUEAKING IN DISTANCE)

SIGOURNEY: The belugas teach their young

that here, they need to take small, quiet breaths.

No chatter...

just touch.

(WHALES BLOWING)

SIGOURNEY: Finally, after six weeks of swimming the gauntlet,

they arrive at a special, secret location.

(EPIC MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: Cunningham Inlet in Northern Canada.

Their own private oasis.

Where a warmer freshwater river

pours into the sea.

(MUSIC ENDS)

SIGOURNEY: This is like a family trip to the spa.

-(RELAXING MUSIC PLAYING) -(WHALES SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: The gravel bottom acts as a big loofah...

for an itch they've been waiting all year to scratch.

The beluga's skin is a hundred times thicker than ours,

but in their winter home, the water is too cold for it to grow.

In these warmer waters, family members can shed a layer,

and get rid of annoying parasites.

(MUSIC ENDS)

SIGOURNEY: This is one of the highlights of their year.

But it's not why they're here.

The main attraction is about to begin.

(EPIC MUSIC CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: Another group arrives. Males and females.

Then another.

(WHALES SQUEAKING, WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Soon... there are hundreds.

Then...

more than two thousand belugas.

Families, all fulfilling their promise to be here for a grand reunion.

Time for everyone to get reacquainted.

They mingle with old friends.

And meet new additions to the family.

(MUSIC ENDS)

SIGOURNEY: But this year's event has a party crasher.

National Geographic explorer and world-famous whale photographer,

Brian Skerry has come to the middle of nowhere to join the festivities.

He's known of this place for years, but never dreamed the gathering

would be such a celebration.

(WHALES SINGING)

BRIAN: I've never seen anything quite like this.

And we're not talking about one or two whales...

we're talking about dozens...

hundreds, even thousands.

It is absolutely off the scale.

What they do here is unique.

They're spinning around, they're doing spy hops.

(WHALE SQUEAKS)

They're doing this behavior that's often called "The banana,"

where you'll see their head and their tail out there,

rubbing their bellies on the bottom on the gravel.

It must feel great!

(WHALES WHISTLING, SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: And there may be more going on here than a summer vacation.

BRIAN: There's so much beluga behavior.

A giant beluga party.

And that's what it seems like but I know that

there must be more happening.

That's really what I'm trying to find out.

(SCREECHING, SQUEAKING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: These whales traveled nearly a thousand miles from Greenland

to get here.

(WHALE SCREECHING IN DISTANCE)

Now, the youngest sister reveals the real reason for their journey.

(WHALES SCREECHING)

BRIAN: And there it is.

A baby beluga.

She's come to Cunningham Inlet to give birth.

(CONTINUOUS SQUEAKING)

BRIAN: Not only does she have her baby but as I look around,

there are so many moms and babies.

SIGOURNEY: Belugas weigh more than 120 pounds at birth,

and there are clues that many young here are just hours old.

BRIAN: We now have photographic evidence of calves being born in this place...

that were probably born hours before with fetal folds,

with umbilical cords.

(WHALE SQUEAKS)

BRIAN: It's a giant beluga whale nursery. Unbelievable.

SIGOURNEY: This is the birthplace of countless generations of belugas.

Everyone in this family was raised right here.

After 15 months of carrying a baby, this is a mother's perfect nursery.

BRIAN: For a mom to be able to come to a place that is very protected,

that's very shallow, where the water might be several degrees

warmer than the open ocean...

and she can nurse that calf in those first few precious days,

to put on that layer of insulation,

to survive in that freezing cold Arctic Ocean.

SIGOURNEY: This baby puts on a pound a day.

At the same time, mom stimulates her infant's brain.

Lessons in language start on day one with beluga baby talk.

(WHALE SINGING)

(WHISTLING, SINGING CONTINUES)

Mom uses a special call to stay in touch.

(WHALE CREAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Daughter needs to learn it by heart.

(CREAKING, WHISTLING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: As she gets older,

their conversations will grow much deeper.

(WHALE SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: Mom will teach her hundreds of sounds.

(SCREECHING, SQUEAKING CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: When the daughter is three, she will decide to stay with mom,

or head out on her own.

No matter where she ends up, every year, she will keep her promise,

and return to Cunningham Inlet.

It's not instinct but something she was taught.

This is culture.

(WHALE SCREECHING IN DISTANCE)

SIGOURNEY: Other beluga clans have different rituals,

and different birthplaces to return to.

(HIGH-PITCHED SCREECHING)

SIGOURNEY: One hometown, a thousand miles south,

challenges belugas in incredible ways.

Canada's Hudson Bay,

five times larger than all of the Great Lakes combined.

This mom and son must navigate the Hudson's many dangers.

Tides swell more than 25 feet in a matter of hours.

(AIR WHOOSHING)

SIGOURNEY: Always changing...

countless hazards...

(WAVES WHOOSHING)

SIGOURNEY: ...shallows and sandbars.

And it's rush hour.

(WHALES WHISTLING IN DISTANCE)

SIGOURNEY: More than a third of the world's belugas summer here...

as many as 55,000 animals.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Mom's young boy doesn't want to get lost.

-(SQUEAKING CONTINUES) -(WATER SPLASHING)

SIGOURNEY: They finally arrive at their traditional family home, Seal River.

-(THUNDER RUMBLES) -SIGOURNEY: But their joy is short-lived.

Polar bears swarm Seal River.

(BEAR GROWLING)

SIGOURNEY: With winter's ice gone, they have two choices. Go hungry...

or get creative.

This big male finds the perfect perch...

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

SIGOURNEY: ...right in the belugas' path.

Mom uses sonar to locate threats in the murk.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: But, out of the water, the bear is invisible.

All he has to do, is wait.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

(SQUEAKING, CREAKING CONTINUES)

(BEAR GROWLS)

Mom knows that splash.

(WHALE SQUEAKS)

SIGOURNEY: It means move, and fast.

Bears can only swim six miles an hour.

Belugas, almost twenty.

They sound the alarm to others...

(WHALES CLICKING)

SIGOURNEY: ...with loud jaw claps.

But they're not out of danger yet.

Another frightened beluga joins them as they race over a sandbar.

The tide drops too fast.

(AIR WHOOSHING)

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: The youngster makes it across...

but the mom and the other adult beluga are stuck.

In the commotion, the young male is separated.

(WHALES SCREECHING IN DISTANCE)

(WHALE SQUEAKING)

(WHALE SCREECHING. CREAKING)

SIGOURNEY: Without mom's milk and her protection,

this baby doesn't stand a chance out here alone.

(BABY WHALE SCREECHING)

She can hear his cries from a third of a mile away.

(SCREECHING IN DISTANCE)

SIGOURNEY: Underwater, human ears can't tell where sounds comes from.

But belugas channel sound through their jaws.

This mother, quite literally,

feels her babies cries.

(WHALE SCREECHING AND CREAKING)

SIGOURNEY: And she can do nothing about it.

Or... can she?

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)

SIGOURNEY: Finally, mom is free.

The slightly larger beluga with her is not.

(MUSIC STOPS)

SIGOURNEY: Mom immediately retraces her steps...

(PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: ...listening for her son's calls.

But they've stopped.

Every mother fears the unthinkable.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: She cries out for him.

(WHALE CREAKING AND WHISTLING)

Mom can only hope he recognizes her call.

(WHALE CLICKING, SCREECHING)

-(UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING) -SIGOURNEY: There he is.

Her son remembered what he was taught.

Their shared call has saved his life.

This is a very lucky young whale.

(MUSIC ENDS)

SIGOURNEY: The beluga left stranded is not.

Now, a sacrifice so this bear can survive.

A hard introduction to Seal River.

But a valuable lesson for the young son.

By the time he leaves his mom around the age of three,

this place will be deeply imprinted in his memory.

He'll know most of this shore's secrets...

and its creatures.

Including other whales.

Nearby...

far stranger...

and more elusive.

This frozen Arctic Inlet in Canada's Lancaster Sound

holds a secret.

Life is everywhere below.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SIGOURNEY: Even the ice itself is alive...

with ice-burrowing crustaceans called amphipods.

(MUFFLED WATER CRASHING)

This is home for one of the world's rarest whales...

the narwhal.

We know narwhals cross paths with belugas

and share feeding grounds.

(WHALE SCREECHING)

They both eat fifty to sixty pounds of seafood a day...

but narwhals dive deeper,

more than a mile down, to hunt bottom-dwelling fish.

And the most obvious difference...

that giant tusk.

The narwhals' legendary horn is actually a long sensitive tooth.

Some females and all the males grow them.

It's one of only two teeth they have.

And exactly how it's used has been a mystery...

until now.

A big narwhal tusk means a fertile mate.

But this male reveals there's more to it than virility.

He has fish in his sights.

A quick flick of the tusk stuns the prey.

No one knows how often they hunt like this.

It only adds to their mystery.

And seeing how a baby eats has been just as elusive.

Babies can't yet eat solid food, so this mom provides all the calories

for her daughter's first 20 months.

This is the first time narwhal nursing has been captured on film.

(WHALE SQUEAKING)

SIGOURNEY: National Geographic whale photographer Brian Skerry

tracks them,

and sees a familiar intimacy.

BRIAN: They love and nurture each other,

and it's this bond that helps them survive difficult situations.

In a lot of ways, they're just like belugas.

And a lot like us.

Also like belugas, narwhals make a journey...

as they have for thousands of years.

Every spring, this group migrates eight hundred miles

from Canada's Baffin Bay to more shallow, warmer waters in the west.

And in at least one case, that's where these two whale species may merge

in the most peculiar way.

It begins with this young wayward narwhal.

He split off from his pod.

And now, he's lost.

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

He travels alone for weeks.

Wrong turn after wrong turn brings him to a strange waters.

There are no other narwhals here.

The closest one is now 600 miles away.

He has no idea where to hunt in this area, or how.

But he is not totally alone.

A group of male beluga whales approaches.

They are the world's southern-most belugas.

His closest cousins could be his saviors.

(WATER BUBBLING)

SIGOURNEY: Narwhals and belugas

make up their own branch of the whale family tree...

but they don't usually interact.

These white whales may make an exception.

He's likely the first narwhal they've ever seen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

This family's ancestors remained here near Quebec

after the last ice age, 10,000 years ago.

They don't look like this narwhal, or speak his language,

but it's possible the belugas can understand their alien cousin.

At least the basics.

He's alone, he's scared...

and he's some kind of whale.

They aren't the only ones taking notes.

Robert Michaud has studied the beluga whales of the Saint Lawrence

for more than 35 years.

But he's never seen anything quite like this.

ROBERT: The very first time we saw the narwhal, we just wondered,

"Whoa, what kind of weird beluga have we seen?"

A lost narwhal is not in a good position.

SIGOURNEY: If the belugas don't adopt him, he won't learn how to hunt here.

He's sure to die alone in strange waters.

(AIR WHOOSHING)

As winter descends, the narwhal is still with them.

But there's an unseen enemy here.

Sound.

(SHIP RUSHING)

The Saint Lawrence is one of Canada's busiest waterways.

(HORN BLOWING)

Boat noise here makes it hard for whales to communicate...

and to hunt with their sonar.

(SHIP ENGINE RUNNING)

The narwhal will have to adapt to the noise

and be fully accepted by the belugas.

(WHALES SCREECHING)

If the belugas keep the narwhal in their group,

-...it will be the very first time... -(WHALES WHISTLING)

...this type of long-term cross-species adoption has ever been recorded.

Spring, and the fate of the whales is unknown.

Robert Michaud is back to find out.

If the narwhal is alive, it will mean he spent the winter with the belugas...

and has been accepted into their group.

ROBERT: We just received a call from our colleague.

They just heard of about 75 beluga whales.

SIGOURNEY: Even if he survived,

finding a single whale in the world's largest estuary is a monumental task.

We know exactly what we're looking for if we see it.

Narval!

ROBERT: Narwhal! Yes!

Whoo!

Whoo!

SIGOURNEY: The narwhal is alive.

And he's with young beluga males just like last summer...

embraced as one of the gang.

ROBERT: Today gives us a few cues to understand this very special behavior,

this very special presence.

This narwhal being included in a new society.

SIGOURNEY: This benevolent cross-cultural acceptance

points to how many secrets these whales have,

and how much we can learn from them.

Throughout the world, other whale species also form societies.

And stay true to their family traditions.

Their cultures keep them going.

(WHALE WHISTLING)

SIGOURNEY: Through the good...

and the bad.

And it's the secrets they share that help them prevail.

(WHALE SQUEAKING)

(INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Our amazing National Geographic team goes out with the goal

of trying to find these social, emotional interactions

amongst these animals,

the different species that we studied in this series.

All right, David, you found them.

JAMES: And here at this inlet, at this gathering, we saw that joyfulness.

That mingling, that desire to be together, that communication.

(WHALES SINGING)

JAMES: It's amazing, the complexity of the language of the beluga.

It's even possible that they're giving themselves names.

There are recognizable linguistic structures

that seem to be associated with individuals.

(WHALE SQUEAKING IN DISTANCE)

JAMES: And some of these animals are traveling 900 miles

to be at this big party, get-together, reunion,

whatever you want to call it.

And, of course, it's a birthing ceremony as well.

That's just spectacular. I didn't expect to see that.

No, me neither. 15 point...

JAMES: What's really interesting about this is that individuals from one group

will wander off with another group, and they'll communicate

for a period of time. So, what are they doing?

They're catching up. They've got a lot of gossip.

They haven't seen each other for a year.

(LAUGHS)

"You know what happened to so and so? Well, let me tell you."

So, you're seeing what we would recognize as human social behavior.

It doesn't seem to be strategic in any way, in terms of hunting strategy.

It seems to be just purely social.

(WHALES SQUEAKING)

They don't know instinctively to come back to where they were born,

they choose to come back to where they were born

and mingle there and exchange information. That's pretty fascinating.

-(WATER BUBBLING) -(WHALES SINGING)

(WHALES SINGING, SQUEAKING)