Adele melon-kissed a beluga at the Shedd Aquarium

SHARE Adele melon-kissed a beluga at the Shedd Aquarium
belugas071216.jpg

Shedd Aquarium trainer Eric Daniel with Kayavak and Kimalu, two of the aquarium’s beluga whales. | Shedd Aquarium/Brenna Hernandez

Adele’s tour stop in Chicago included more than her shows at the United Center. The British singer and her son made friends with the beluga whales at the Shedd Aquarium.

Adele’s private meet-and-greet with the whales Monday afternoon was during an “enrichment session,” Shedd spokeswoman Andrea Rodgers said. The sessions are for trainers to feed, play and check up on the animals.

In an Instagram video taken by B96’s djnikki, Adele told her fans at her concert Monday night about “melon-kissing” a beluga whale. A “melon-kiss,” Rodgers said, is when a human puts their forehead against the fleshy melon on the top of a beluga’s head.

“I felt so at peace with myself when I did it,” the singer said in the video. “She [the whale] put her cheek to my cheek, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life.”

Rodgers said Adele and her son also saw several behind-the-scenes areas and public exhibits.

Beluga whales are known as “the canaries of the sea,” Rodgers said. “So it was quite appropriate.”

Adele didn’t sing for the whales.

The Latest
The man was found unresponsive in an alley in the 10700 block of South Lowe Avenue, police said.
The man suffered head trauma and was pronounced dead at University of Chicago Medical Center, police said.
Another federal judge in Chicago who also has dismissed gun cases based on the same Supreme Court ruling says the high court’s decision in what’s known as the Bruen case will “inevitably lead to more gun violence, more dead citizens and more devastated communities.”
Women make up just 10% of those in careers such as green infrastructure and clean and renewable energy, a leader from Openlands writes. Apprenticeships and other training opportunities are some of the ways to get more women into this growing job sector.
Chatterbox doesn’t seem aware that it’s courteous to ask questions, seek others’ opinions.