May 15, 2017
by John Hopton
Narwhals are superb creatures -
they have a great name and a striking appearance, largely due to the long and
imposing tusks protruding from their heads.
But as remarkable as these
whales' tusks look, it has until recently been unknown exactly how they are
used.
Drone footage shot around the
remote Nunavut region of Canada has put an end to the mystery, revealing that
the so called "unicorns of the sea" use their tusks to stun prey.
In behavior caught on camera for
the first time, narwhals are seen using the tusks as a club to hit and stun
Arctic cod. Once stunned, the fish are easier to catch and eat.
Adam Ravetch of the World Wildlife Fund Canada, and
researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, were working in the far
Northeastern region when they got the footage.
The remoteness of locations in
which narwhals are found goes a long way to explaining why the behavior has not
been noted before.
Three quarters of the world's
population can be found in the Lancaster Sound, close (in relative terms)
to where to footage was taken.
The tusks are likely multipurpose
Marianne Marcoux, a research
scientist for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said that: "Drones are very
exciting, we can see things we couldn't see before."
The bigger planes previously used
for such ventures often came up with incomplete footage or scared the narwhals.
"They don't jump like other
whales. They are also notoriously skittish. This is an entirely new observation
of how the tusk is used," said Brandon Laforest, a senior specialist
of Arctic species and ecosystems with WWF-Canada.
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