. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1998 Lesage and Kingsley: Updated Status of the St Lawrence Beluga 99. Figure 1. The Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) photographed by Veronique Lesage in 199L The left shows the species as usually seen in the field, taken in the St. Lawrence Estuary. The right showing details of morphology was taken at the Shedd Oceanarium in Chicago, Illinois. Distribution and Migration The Beluga is limited to seasonally ice-infested Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. The St Lawrence Belugas are at the southern limit of the worldwide distribution of the species (Reeves 1990). Beluga s
. The Canadian field-naturalist. 1998 Lesage and Kingsley: Updated Status of the St Lawrence Beluga 99. Figure 1. The Beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) photographed by Veronique Lesage in 199L The left shows the species as usually seen in the field, taken in the St. Lawrence Estuary. The right showing details of morphology was taken at the Shedd Oceanarium in Chicago, Illinois. Distribution and Migration The Beluga is limited to seasonally ice-infested Arctic and sub-Arctic seas. The St Lawrence Belugas are at the southern limit of the worldwide distribution of the species (Reeves 1990). Beluga skeletons in Pleistocene clays and sand deposits in Quebec (Canada) and Vermont (United States) suggest that the Beluga established itself in the St Lawrence region during the last Ice Age, about 10 000 years ago (Harington 1977). At that time, the Champlain Sea covered an area of 53 100 km- or more between Quebec City and Lake Ontario, including part of the lower Ottawa River valley and the Lake Champlain valley in New York and Vermont. Belugas probably remained in the northern (lower) sector of the Champlain Sea during the retreat of the Laurentian Ice Sheet and established themselves in what would become the present St Lawrence River. The current distribution of the St Lawrence Beluga (Figure 2) is not as extensive as that described 50 years ago by Vladykov (1944). Their distribution in the upper Estuary then extended 48 km upstream of Quebec City, but now is limited to the Battures aux Loups Marins, approximately 100 km downstream of Quebec City. The eastern extent of the Beluga's range in the Gulf of St Lawrence has been reduced from Natashquan to Sept-Iles along the north shore, and from Bale des Chaleurs to Cloridorme along the south shore; there are, however, occasional sightings of small numbers off the "north shore" of New Brunswick, and recent observations of small numbers in the northern Gulf in summer (Kingsley, unpublished data). The extent of their distr
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