Jambo! Mr. Nature here, with a visit to the Arctic seas–’cause that’s where you have to go if you want to see a narwhal. They don’t survive in captivity and nobody knows what they eat in the wild.
This is a unique animal. The “horn” is really a tusk–the left front tooth, in fact. It grows straight out in a spiral, and the nerves of the tooth are… on the outside. How the whale uses the tusk is unknown. They’ve never been seen using it to fight or to capture food.
When Norse voyagers in the Middle Ages began to bring these tusks home as souvenirs, they weren’t just exotic conversation pieces. Kings and queens bought them, and paid very high prices. Magical powers were attributed to the tusks. And even today, they’re cloaked in mystery.
God’s stuff–infinite variety, endless fascination.
whoo, never knew this critter existed. amazing
Narwhals are always showing up in word puzzles — and I always have to stop and think about where the “h” goes. I must have a narwhal block….
And sure enough, as I typed that, I had to stop and think about where the “h” should go. I definitely have a block about the word.
I have a vocab for the day calander I received for Christmas. Today’s word is narwhal.
I thought they were more famous than they seem to be.
Then on “jeopardy” that night under the category “blowholes” the answer was “What is a narwhal – and get this, it was a show I had recorded five days ago!!
If only you’d been on the show!