“...the death of the Beluga made world-wide headlines...”
First I’ve heard of it.
I knew of Hvaldimir but this is the first I heard of his death also.
We often take for granted that animals will recognize appropriate food when presented in its natural form. Yet Ive seen in many animals from chickens to dogs that they dont recognize food when they have been cooped up too long with humans providing everything. You can let a coop chicken out in the yard and they will peck around but at least for a good while not really be able to feed themselves no matter how many bugs there are. An abandoned adult city dog doesnt know enough to eat the road kill possum when it gets dumped and a young dog always provided kibble thinks a dead squirrel is a not particularly fun playmate.
We know hes an escapee from a program, maybe he just wasnt catching on very well.
Of course maybe exactly the opposite is true. Just because there wasnt anything in his stomach didnt mean that he hadnt been eating at all. For example maybe he had been eating something inappropriate or contaminated. If his organs were breaking down he might have been poisoned. For example, I know that there is a type of invasive crab causing problems in that area. If those are the type of bottom feeders up a lot of toxins and he had eaten a lot of those not knowing any better then he could have been effectively dead for a long time before he stopped swimming.
Someone knew the story that he had been shot was going to amass millions of clicks. An escaped Russian spy whale assassinated by Russia before he gave up any information? This goes a long way to support anti-russian propaganda and puts them in the same camp of loons that kill all the pigeons because they are American spies.