A couple weeks ago - I'm not sure why - Samuel mentioned narwhals as we drove in the car ...
me: "What on earth is that?"
sam: "Like a manatee but with a horn like a unicorn."
me: "Nu-uh. You are making that up."
sam: "No, they are real! Seriously."
me: "No way. I don't believe you."
sam: "Look em up."
Well, I forgot all about it until the kids were playing with some alphabet cards that had pictures of animals for each letter. The letter N? A narwhal. I looked it up. How on earth have I not heard about this before??
The narwhal is one of two species of white whales. The other is the Beluga. The horn is actually a tusk - the left incisor tooth. (Every once in a while a right incisor will grow as well and the whale will have two gigantic tusks). The tusk grows to be up to 10 FEET long. And the narwhal's bodies are only 13-16 feet long. Here are a couple pictures:
'Tusking' - essentially fencing with their tusks
[shudder] Just looking at these gives me the heebie jeebies. I think I want to die. Or cry. Or wet my pants. Or something. Those are terrifying.
16 comments:
Those are psycho. How can they all swim in a group like that without stabbing each other through the head?? That's insane.
I've always wanted one of those as a pet... though I don't picture them as vicious. More like the one you see in the beginning of the movie Elf.
i have never heard of such creatures. and i agree that they are freaky.
I agree, very scary! I thought the character Mr. Narwhal in Elf was a fictional animal. Who knew? I do enjoy the fact that there are out-of-the-ordinary animals being introduced to our uneducated culture. Another example is in Veggie Tales where Larry sings "Barbara Manatee." Thank you Hollywood for educating us about odd animals.
Their unicorn horns are actually a tooth?! Oh, now that's just weird. I don't find them terrifying, but I suppose I would if I were swimming right in front of them!
Wow, I had heard of the Beluga, but never these. This is not going to help Bart's fear of sea monsters.
you're so funny. i always thought of them as gentle, like the beluga. i guess i only knew of them cuz of what i studied in school - and i always thought it was kinda weird that the horn is a tusk, like an elephant.
Haven't you ever seen the movie Elf? There is a narwal at the north pole in that movie. I totally agree, they are freaky!
I've never heard of those before either--seriously creepy...
If I could be any animal for a day, I would be a narwhal. Haha.
Sorry I'm taking over your comment page, but this was too funny!Andy just got home from work and this is the conversation we had maybe 10 minutes ago...
ME: "Hey! Wasn't Janae's post about narwhals funny?!"
ANDY: "Well, I didn't know what they were either."
ME: "What the CRAP are you talking about?! Don't you REMEMBER watching Elf at my mom's house the night after Thanksgiving and I had to explain what a narwhal was?!"
ANDY: "I thought you were just making that up."
ME: "I TOLD YOU TO GOOGLE IT!"
And then in a pregnant rage I went and put the dishes in the dishwasher because apparently I make crazy things up like narwhals! I guess this means I made up the platypus too...
That is pretty creepy. I'd never heard of 'em before. Yikes!
I guess I much have read way too many National Geographic magazines when I was litte! I can only imagine running into a herd of those guys! Freaky!
Wow, so seeing the pictures of them made me totally laugh out loud. What a funny animal. The odd name fits it pretty well. I wouldn't have believed it without seeing a picture!
I actually think narwhals are super cool! Unfortunately, they're not talked about a lot which is a shame because they are so unique and beautiful!
And have you ever wondered how the circus people make the fake unicorns? They use a narwhal tusk and surgically attach it to the poor horse's skull! (At least that's what I always heard... They could have been real unicorns...)
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