Narwhal : Strange Species

Narwhal

A narwhal also known as narwhale is found around the arctic continent. It has a long straight helical tusk which exceeds the length of whole body with age. The tusk keeps growing for the whole life and may reach up to 5.5 meters. This special feature of narwhal is actually an elongated upper left canine in males. Generally females don’t grow tusks but a very small number of females too have elongated tusks which are generally smaller than those constituted by males. Most of the males have only one tusk but there are exceptions too. One in 500 narwhals is reported to have two tusks which is the result of elongation of the upper right tusk. The right tusk is always smaller and less straight then the left one.

The average length of a male narwhal is about 4.1 meters which is larger than an average female (3.5 meters). Males attain puberty at about 11 to 13 years of age and females reach sexual maturity at about 5 to 8 years of age.

The helical tusk of narwhal is hollow and weights around 10 kg only. Narwhals are very similar to beluga whales as they are of around of same length. They have a white skin with blackish brown patches. The color of a narwhal changes with age as narwhal infant is too dark and whiteness increases with age. they develop white patches on the naval and genital portions when sexual maturity is attained. An old narwhal is completely white in color.

Narwhals feed predominantly on squid, Greenland halibut, polar and arctic cod, cuttlefish, wolfish and sometines rocks. Due to this restricted diet, they are prone to danger.


Inuit people in northern Canada and Greenland have harvested narwhals for thousands of years for meat and ivory and their population is considered stable because of prevented and sustainable hunting, though, they are too sensitive to climate change and have a very specialized diet. For this reason, they have been declared as Near Threatened by IUCN.
Credits: Image Source- Google Images

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The most Gruesome and filthy tortures invented in human history

Image
Most Brutal tortures in the history Impalement Invented in                                       -     Romania Time Taken by the victim to die   -     15 min to 3 days Brief description                             -     This was considered the most inhumane way of torture ever adopted in the history. For Impaling a victim, a tapered and oiled wooden stake is inserted inside the anus (in case of men) or in vagina (for women) from the pointed side. After this, it is stood in the vertical position so that the stake is inserted slowly with the own wait of the victim over a long period of time. The punishment was carried out until the stake comes out of the victim’s breast, shoulder, stomach or mouth. The cruelest part of this torture was that the pointed end was kept blunt enough to not kill the victim too early, so that he/she would have to endure the pain for several hours or even days before dying. The Judas cradle Invented in                                     
Read more

World's first analog computer

Image
Antikythera mechanism It is the oldest gear system found till date and is also famous as the oldest analog computer of the world. the calculator has been dated to be built in 1st century BC. The mechanism was found in 1900-1901 from a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera and is of Greek origin. No other older artifact showing so much complex mechanism was ever found after that, hence Antikythera mechanism is of great historical significance. Reconstruction of Antikythera mechanism at Archaeological museum Athens It is actually a date calculator which was used as a calendar. The calculator had a small hand crank which is lost now. The hand crank was used to set the date and was linked to the largest gear through a crown gear. When the hand crank was rotated, all the gears inside were also rotated with it and various astronomical figures like position of the Sun, Moon phases, planets and eclipse cycles were calculated. The mechanism was made with
Read more

Milestones of Human evolution

Image
Milestones of Human evolution Theory of evolution states that we humans, like all other living species of the world have evolved from our ancestors. It is stated that a genetic mutation occurred in few members of an old species of chimpanzee and they were evolved into a newer species. This phenomenon continued for millions of years and we as humans were evolved finally. No doubt this phenomenon still continues and there are a lot of developments to happen. Well this post will only emphasize on the major milestones which occurred in our history of evolution. Toumai (Sahelanthropus) Believed to have existed 7 million years ago, this species is considered to have first evolved from chimpanzees. In this context they are the first known step in our evolution. For detailed information you may jump to Sahelanthropus which contains the detailed text about the species. Orrorin (Orrorin tugenesis) It is considered as the second big step in our evolution and is believed to
Read more