The Narwhal

[Monodon Monocerous]

Throughout   Medieval times up to about the 17th century, the existence of the unicorn was kept alive by the alicorns [the unicorns horn] that the Vikings brought to Europe. They kept it a well guarded secret that the beautiful spiralling horns were not that of the unicorn, but of the narwhal.The narwhal lives mainly in the Arctic, swimming the waters from Canada to Russia through the Norwegian waters and rarely seen further south than 70 degs north latitude.There are large concentrations in the Davis Strait, around Baffin Bay and in the Greenland Sea. Polar bears, walruses, orcas and some sharks are their preditors but their biggest enemy is man.The Inuit people of Greenland and Canada have hunted the narwhal for centuries, for its tusk, flesh, and other edible parts. Its thick skin is traditionally eaten raw as a delicacy, the blubber is rendered down for heating and lighting, and some of the meat is fed to sled dogs. It is still traditionally hunted from kayaks using harpoons but most Inuit hunters now use fast motorboats and high powered rifles.

The head of the narwhal is small with a bulbous forehead and a short beak. The male narwhal has a long spiralling tusk which grows to a length of 1.5 - 3 metres [ 5 to 10 ft ].It is actually a tooth which grows on the lefthand side of the upper jaw and can weigh up to 22 lbs. Some females may grow a single thin horn.The males use their horns to duel with one another when competing for females.This is called 'tusking' . They can grow to a length of 4 - 5 metres [ 13 - 16 ft ] and weigh 0.8 - 1.6 tonnes. It has a varied diet, feeding on  squid, fish and  crustaceans and uses suction and the emission of a water jet to dislodge fish and molluscs living on the ocean bottom. The narwhal is  the most vocal of the whale species.The total world population of narwhals is estimated at between 25,000 and 45, 000

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