whale of the day

monodon monoceros

Monodon monoceros actually means “one-tooth one-horn” or “one-toothed unicorn” (<——- my favorite).  The name Narwhal is from the Old Norse, word nar, meaning “corpse”.  This is from the animal’s grayish, mottled pigmentation, like that of a drowned sailor (kind of morbid).  They are a medium-sized toothed whale that live year-round in the Arctic, primarily in Canadian Arctic and Greenlandic. The Narwhal’s closest relative is the Beluga whale.  The Narwhal population is approximately 75,000.

Male Narwhals weigh up to 3,500 lb and females weigh up to 2,200 lb.  They are darkest when they are born and become whiter in color with age.  These “one-toothed unicorns”  have a 7 to 10 ft long tusk, which is an incisor tooth that comes from the left side of the upper jaw.  This tusk can be up to 9.8 ft long and weigh up to 22 lb.

Their prey is made up of halibut, cod, shrimp, Gonatus squid, wolfish, capelin, and skate eggs.  During the winter, Narwhals are found in offshore, deeper waters under thick pack ice, and surfacing in narrow fissures in the sea ice.  Their winter dives consist of some of the deepest dives ever recorded for a marine mammal.  They are diving at least 2,625 ft over 15 times per day, with many of those dives reaching 4,921 ft.  Those deepest dives will last around 25 minutes, which include going down and coming back up.  Their only predators consist of humans, polar bears, and orcas.