MAMMALIAN SPECIES wo. 127, pp. 17,56 Monodon monoceros. By Randall R. Reeves and Sharon Tracey Published 15 April 1980 by The American Society of Mammalogists Monodon Linnaeus, 1758 Monodon Linnacus, 175875, type species Monadon monoceros Linnacus, by monotypy. Ceratodantis Brisson, 1762:366, type species C. ceratodon Bis: Ceratodon Brinnich, 1772:48, substitute name for Monodon Lin- Diadon Store, 178042, new name for Monodon Linnacus. Nanwalus Lacépide, 18Di:xxvi, type species N. vulgaris by tau- tonomy. Nanwhatus Duméril,1806:28, emendation of Narealus Lacépede. ‘Narkeatus Fischer, 1814:662, misspelling of Narwalus Lacepede. Tachyices Brookes, 1828:1, type species 7. megacephalus CONTEXT AND CONTENT. Order Cetacea, Suborder Odontoceti, Family Monodontidae. Monodon and Delphinapreras are the only genera; both are monotypic, and no subspecies are Feeognized, Monodon monoceros Linnaeus, 1758 Narwhal Mondon monoceros Linnaeus, 1758:75. Type locality “Arctic mm 1762:366. ‘Type locality “seus rl and Davie St Monodon Narhoal Borowski, 1781:8. Type locality unknown. Monodon Narhual Blumenbach, 1779:142. Type locality un- ienown, Narwalus vulgaris Lacépede, 1804eexvii, 142, pl. 4, fg. 8. Type Tocality unknown. Narwalus microcephalus Lacépide, W80t-xexvil, 159, pl. 5, fg ‘2. Type locality “Boston” (Lincolnshire, England). Narwalus Andersonianus Lacépéde, I804:xxxvii, 163. Type lo- ality “ble River.” Ceratodon monodon Pallas, 1811:295. Type locality “coast of Si ‘beri ‘Monodon microcephalus Fleming, 1811:146. Type locality “coast of Sealand Tachynices megacephalus Brookes, 1828:40. Type locality un- known, DIAGNOSIS. The narwhal is veadly distinguished from the white whale or beluga, Delphinapterus leuens, by external. ap- pearance and skull characteristics. ‘Though neonates of the two ‘may be canfused [both are slate gray, about the same size (15 fm), and without dorsal fin], mature animals can be easily dae Uingushed. Adult white whales are uniformly white; adult nar Wwhals, with rare exceptions, have a noticeable degree of dark ‘dorsolateral mottling Fig 1). In the narwhal the premaxilae are feonver anterior to the external mares; in the white whale the premaxille are fat or concave, The skull is considerably more 2 and 3). Dentition is the most inctive feature between the two genera, Narwhals ate super- tales normally possess an erupted tooth, the long external tusk. White whales have 8 to 10 conical teeth'in each upper and lower jaw, all of which are visible and functional GENERAL CHARACTERS. Detailed descriptions of exe ternal appearance were given by Scocesby (1820), Tomlin (1967), Mansfield etal. 0975), and Arvy (1978). A siall, blont-snouted head comprises 14% of total hody length, The mouth is small arrose, and curved upward toward the corners. Ia males and infrequently in females a straight, tapered, spiraled tusk pro- trudes through the upper lip. The tusk grows toa length of 3 m, ranging from 38 to 90° of the length of the animal's body and ‘weighing more than 10 hg in very large individuals. The eye slit ‘bout 25 mm long end is $00 to 350 mm from the tip of the rout, The flippers are elliptcaly curved along the tailing edge, Slightly curved along the leading edge. and rounded at the up. ‘They are short compared to the flippers of many odontocetes: 0.5 to'Oid'm long and 7 to 105% of total body length. The tips are noticeably upeurled in adults. The narwhal has no dorsal fin, but thas an inegular ridge SO mm high and 0.6 to 0.9 m long along the posterior half of the back. The posterior margin of each fluke is Strongly convex rather than stright or concave asin most other here is'a median notch hetween the flukes, Mature ‘are commonly 4 to 5 m long exclusive of the tusk, and tale are larger than females. ‘Skin color alters with age. The neonate is an uneven gray or bluish-gray. Soon after weaning the body beeomes a uniform bluish-black or black, As the animal matures, white streaks and patches develop around the anus, genital sit and navel, spread- Ing over the entire ventral surface and onto the Ranks. Adult are hte to creamy yellow ventrally and mottled gray to black dor- Sally: Very old animals, especially males, are almost completely white, srvhal has no evidence of hair, but Eales (1950) ‘oF hair germs on the lower jaw of a fetus 137 mm in length DISTRIBUTION. Monodon monoceras, the nonheramost cetacean, inhabits the artic seas, commonly between T0°N and BON, and Tess often south to 65'N and north to BN (Fig. Several records north of 84°N, including the birth of a eal, were simmarized by Rutilevski (1958), Sergeant (1978) described the leepwater species, in contrast to js: more coastal Iphinapterss omilin (1967) reviewed distribution in the Eurasian arctic, foting thatthe large herds of up to hundred individuals, once Novaya Zemlyay had diminished to schools of a few individuals by the late 1940’. Inthe Soviet sector narwhals are most frequently observed around Franz Josef Land and in the northern Chukchi Sea (Yablokov and Bel'kovieh, 1968) ‘The occurrence of narwhals in the cold temperate aorthea Aulantic is exceptional. Collett (1911-1912) gave seven records FIGURE 1. Juvenile male narwhal (above) and female and calf Gelow), both from Admiralty Inlet, N.W.T., Canada. Photos by BIR Reeves,Ficuae 2. Skull of male Monodon monoceras (U.S.N.M. no, 267957) in (top to bottom) dorsal, ventral, and lateral views. Scales represent $0 mm for the north and west coasts of Norway, and Aguayo (1978) men: Loned one fram Holland, one orto from the mouth of the Elbe River in West Germany, and one from the Baltic coast of West Germany. Only six strandings have been recorded on British coasts Fraser, 1974). Sacmundsson and Degerbs (1939) roorded even narwhals stranded between 1600 and 1924 in Tecland, ll fn the north coast, and Einarsson and Jonsson (1976) added a ‘record forthe south coast, During summer narwhals are common along part of the east coast of Greenland, where they range deep into certain fords (Pedersen, 1981; Boyd, 1932), Presumably they move out to open ‘waters ofthe Greenland Sea once winter ice begins to form in the Sounds, although some remain all winter atthe ice edge. Their ‘istribotion in the Greenland Sea was reviewed by Gray (1889) Wl Gray (1931) NNarwhals occur in greatest abun well, where they frequent coastal waters a¢ well athe pelagle tne. ‘They are believed to winter in the permanently open water fa Baffin Bay, but recorded observations there are few. Capt George Tyson observed narwhals breaking through thin tee in February and March 1873, between 68°N and 6E°N (Davis, 1876), Turl (1927) confirmed Tyson's report by making similar obser vations a century later. Many narwhals are caught by hunters in buter Disko Bay, West Greenland, during January to May. and ‘winter ice entrapment ie not uncommon in Umanak Fjord and Timer Disko Bay (Rape. 1977. ‘As the winter ice breaks up during May and June, narwhale ‘move into sounds of the Canadian archipelago and fords along the northwest coset of Greenland. In Canada the normal summer range extends from Kane Basin in the north, to Cornwallis Island inthe west, and south to Southampton Island and Hudson Strait MAMMALIAN SPECIES 127 Fioune 3. Posterior view of skull (top), and ventral and leteral Views of left lower jae (same specimen a> shown in Fig. 2}, Scale represents 30 mm. (Mansfield etal., 1975; Sergeant, 1978). A group of 10 sighted in 1976 in MacLean Lougheed Strait between King Christian Island and land extended the known range in the eastern Ca westward to approximetely 105°W (Re and Sie 7). In western Greenland narwhals are common close from Disko Bay in the south to the Thule distr in the north (Vibe, 1950). They aze rarely encountered south of Suk- Kertoppen (Kapel, 197%), Mercer (1978) described large male found on the coast of Newfoundland (50°40'N, $5°30°W) in June 1969. This male and ‘a subadul trapped by ice off northeastern Newfoundland (Prucht- ‘man, 1978), are the only post Pleistocene records south of Hud- Son Strait, Probably the mtrwhal occurs atleast sporadically along the relatively uninhabited coast of Labrador ‘Occasionally narwhals are found in Alaskan waters, mostly along the north coast east to Barrow (Bee and Hall, 1956; Reeves, 1970), One stranding occurred on the Alaska Peninsula at S6°N, 1G1°W (Geist etal, 1960), and a tusk and cranium were found in Prince Albert Sound (71°22'N, 117°21'W), the fest reported oc- currence in the area of Amundsen Gulf in the western Canadian arctic Smith, 1977), FOSSIL RECORD. Owen (1846) reported four post-Plio- cone fossils, each a fragment of « tusk—swo from Englend’s Ter tiary strata, one from Germany, and another of unknown oxgin. According to Collings (1938), addtional narwhal material has ‘hoon found in an early Pleistocene deposit in England, Reported finds at Chaleur Bay, consisting of fragments of one specimen and a nearly complete skull and tusk of another, sug fest that the nerwhal was en inhabitant of the Cul of St. Law- ence during late Wisconsin oF early post-glacial times (Having- ton, 197D.MAMMALIAN SPECIES 127 Ficone 4. North circumpolar projection to 45° showing the probable normal range of the narwhal (as grid) The Arete Circle Is showa. The possible range of occasional necurrenees (diagonal Tines) and specific outlying records (ote: sce text) are represent- feds open cites show extralimital reeneds with some uncertainty in identieation ONTOGENY AND REPRODUCTION, Extrapolating from the breeding habits of the white whale, Best and Fisher (2974) judged narwhal conception to oveur in early April and ges- tation to last 14 months (Mansfield et al. 1975, assumed 14.5 months). Placentation was deseribed by Turner (1875) who te- ‘moved a term fetus 1.65 m in length from the left uterine horn ‘The newborn narwhal has a 25 mm layer of blabber (Mans- field etal. 1975) A single calf is weval, but Clark (1871) reported female with two fetuses, Beat and Fisher (1978) suggested seasonal breeding, based ‘on a serie of fetal lengths and records of newborns which dem nstrated both an carly and late stage of gestation during summer but no intermediate stages, The smallest neonate recorded was 1.59 m long the largest 1.65 m (Turner, 1875). A newborn usually measures between 1.5 and 1-7 m and weighs just over 80 ki (Mansfield etal, 1975). ‘Daation of lactation is unknown (it continues for 20 months field eta, 1975), Age at sexual maturity smparable to that ofthe white whale, 4 to 7 snd 8 109 years for males, Physical maturity inthe white whe is thought to be years for female Seems to he atained ata length of about $m and a weight of 900 [gin females and 4.7 m and 1600 kg in males. Hay (1978) used growth layers on the polished dentinal sur- face of the longitudinally sectioned unerupted tooth and thin transverse sections of the periosteal zone of the anterolabial pore estimate age in narwhals. Alternating wide tio of the manslble feneraly occlides after deposition of 12 t0 20 layers The maw {inom number of mandibular layers observed was 45. Hay ao timed three or four layers are deposited during each of the Br two years of life, based on analysis of length frequency dst bation. In ‘adult females, for whom ovulation and reproductive ‘ould be correlated, it appears that one growth layer a Aleposited per year after 2 years of age FORM. Between 30 and 859% of ody weight is blubber, 25% muscle, and 106% skin Mansfield et al, 1975). Blubber thick ‘ness ranges from 50 to 100 mm and averages 70 to 80 min. The ‘kin has a high vitamin C content (Siijper, 1963) ‘The skeleton includes 50 to 55 vertebrae: 7 unfused C, 11 to 12D, 610 1OL, and 26 to 27 Ca (Tomlin, 1967). There ate eight tworheaded ibs and four stermal nbs (Beddard, 1900). Eales (1984) described the anatomy’ of the flipper in fetus and adult, ilustrating the decrease in number of phalanges with age, Nut bers of digital phalanges are 11 t02, 11609, IIT 4107, 1V 3 t0 Figuae 5. Ear bones of narwhal. Upper left: anterolatero-ven tual view of fused left periotic complex. and tympanic. bulla (US.N.M. no. 267959), Upper right posterior (and slightly doe- ‘iaterad view of 267059, Lower lefts dorsal view of right pesioti omplen (U.S.N-M. no. 267957) arows show lateral and posterior Airections. Lower rghl: anterior (and slightly dorscateral) view 0f 267957. Seales are in millimeters. 5. V2 10 4 for embryos, and £1 to 2, 115 106, I 4 105, 1V 210 4 and V 210 3 for adults “The unique ivory tusk of the narwhal has an inner layer of| dentine, an outer layer of cement, and a pulp cavity extending its entire Tength. The pulp tisste ie cimilerto that of most man imalien incisors (Dow and Hollenberg, 1977). The elongated tooth hhas no enamel. In the fetus, thore is evidence of six pais of upper teeth and two pais of lower teeth (Eales, 1950) In adults only ‘one pair develops, near the maxille-premaxillery suture. ‘These teeth have been called incisors, modified incisors, and canines ‘As the narwhal’ d undiferentatet dentc "Tooth de- ‘velopment was considered by Owen (1868) and vestigial tecth in the adult were described by Fraser (1938). ‘The adult female generally has no functional teeth as the two teeth in the upper jaw remain embedded in the skull (Home, 1813). "Nevertheless, instances of single-tusked and double: tusked females have been recorded (Scoresby, 1823: Pedersen, 1981; Hay and Sergeant, 1976). Clark (1871) cited 1 cases. of bidental specimens, two of which were known to have been fe- sales, and Sheppard (1987) reported several others. Porsld (1923) wrote that “in rare eases both tusks are developed in the males.” Tn males the left tooth normally erupts from the gum and protraden outward through the upner lip, spiraling sinistally, The Inechanism by which the spiraled texture is achieved has not been explained, although Thompson (1942) presented # lucid if somewhat improbable argument invalving # “torque of inertia” ‘caused by the animal's swimming motion. Inthe right tooth the pulp chamber caleifes before it has developed enough to pierce the gum. Inthe rare instances when the right toath does emerge, itis usually shorter than the left; but interestingly enough, ite {grooves parallel those of the left tusk rather than spiraling in the Foverse direction (Winge, 1942). Seoreshy (1823), a keen observer and reliable commentator, reported ona female whose singe tusk had a destrorsl spiral. The distal end of every tsk has a polished appearance, while the rest of its covered by a reddish or green algal growth (Porsid, 1922) This applies to both tasks in bideatal specimens. Pedersen (1981) observed a fullgrosen male with Usk, and a tuskless immature male was reported by Hay and Sergeant (1976), but no record exists of a developed eight tusk in Association with a rudimentary condition in the let (Clark, 1871: Collings, 1988). Broken tusks are common (Peslersen, 1930 ‘An anomalous mandibular tusk, 30 em long and curved ven: troexterally from the right side, was reported by Michell and4 Kemper (1978). To our knowledge this is the only documented ceurrence of an external tusk in the lower jaw. Eales (1950) gave a detailed description of the fetal skull. comparing it with that of an adult narwhal and those of other cetaceans, Fraser and Purves (1960) discussed the structure of the skull a it relates to the hearing process. Kasua (973) com pared the morphology ofthe tympano-peritic bones among oon focetes and found that Monodon and Delphinapteras share si ilar primitive charactristies (Fig. 5) Howell (1980) suggested thatthe relatively strong neck mus cles might have evolved to support the large tusk. Huber (1938) ‘lescrbed the facial musculature, the specialized nasal apparatus fad its associated musculature, the outer ear, and the eyelid. Both he and Howell noticed the extensive network of al sinuses which inundate and give a spongy texture to the intermuseular fascia, This contrasts with the deual Abrows reticular structure Tost other adontocetes, The oll sinses ramily through the Flubber and musculature ofthe head, abdomen, and neck, How ll (1990) explained how il could low among the sinsses daring fnusele contraction and postulated that this might play an inpors tant roe in thermoregulation, ‘Wilson (1870) discussed the circulatory system, The brain wae diagramme by Turner (1891). A diagram of the narwhal's Luditory apparatus was presented by Kellogg (1928). Hein (1918) described the anatomy of the hyoid and laryns ‘The histology and gross anatomy ofthe digestive system were studied by Woodhead and Gray (1889, 1890) nd Hein (1915). The first of the narwhal's five stomach compartments is merely an extension of the esophagus. which it resembles histologically. It hava thick, muscular wall lined with nippe-like structures, Pep- tie glands are numerous in the second compartment, which isthe frst digestive, oF gastric. cavity, andthe last three compartments contain pslorie plands, Hein (1915) found no major differences between the narwhal's stomach and those uf other edontocete Hein (1914) related information on the anatomy of the ur ecnital system, including descriptions ofthe external organs, the Internal organs, the bladder, and the kidney. Wilson (1879) dise ‘cussed the circulatory system, FUNCTION. Triscylglycerals from acoustic tissues and blubber were anaiyzed by Robisch ct al, (1972) who found di- iovaleroslglyeerides in acousti tissues but notin Blabber, sup- porting the hypothesis that these glyeerdes are important inthe feholocation of cetaceans ‘Narwhals have been found with what appear to he broken tusk tips embedded in the ends of their own broken tusks, and these have prompted fancifel speculation about one narwhal co- ‘operating to plug another's tooth, However, the findings of Dow land Hollenberg (1977) support Torilin's (1967) explanation that deposition of reparitive dentine generated by the palp forms an fossified plug atthe end of a broken tusk, Dow and Hollenberg (1977 surmised that the tusk may fane- tion to eliminate excess body heat generated by “spurts of ab- normal physieal activity” (see Behavior section). Vogl and Fisher (1976) found glycogen pools in thoracic retial vessels and hypothesized that the retal complex may contribute to blood glucose levela during a dive Scoresby (1823) claimed that when harpooned, a narwhal could descend abot 200 fathoms. Hay and Sergeant (1976) timed periods of submergence during a chase. At the start, the narwhal Femained submerged for 15 minutes ai time: after an hour, it ‘was surfacing after dives of ne minute ECOLOGY. Man is the principal predator of narwhals, Sco resby (1828) and Gray (1927, 1089) witnessed walruses, Odobenas rosmaras, feeding om narwbals. No reliable account of predation bay killer whales, Oreinus orca, exists but narwhals reportedly are sometimes driven close inshore by them Smith and Taylor. 1977) Beck and Mansfeld (1969) noted that Greenland sharks, Somnio: sus microcephalus, attracted by the offal from lensing, atacked hnarwhals trapped in netting, Sharke also have been known to ‘ongsegate in the vicinity of ice holes where trapped narwhals ‘ie in numbers from suffocation, starvation, or the effects of unting Ursus maritima, may sloped, and crustaceans, Polar cod, it halibut, Rheinhardtius hippoglos- fens are inshore staples (Pedersen, 1931; Vibe, 1950; Mansfeld etal, 1973) In pelagi regions ceph- flopods are a primary prey (Brown, 1868: Grayy 1889). A skate, Rata batis, and pleuronectid flatish were removed from a nar MAMMALIAN SPE: wr whal stomach in the Greenland Sea (Scoresby, 1823). Freuchen (0985) found seulpins in narwhal stomachs in Felipse Sound ‘The narwhal is host to's number of endoparasites and cc- toparasites, wbich were listed by Dailey and Brownell (1972. The les Porrocaccum decipiens and Anisakis simplex infest the and Stenurus alatus infests the inner ear. Hay and Sergeant (1970) refereed to unidentified nematodes in the: and intestine, unidentiied cestodes, trematodes, and. acantho- ephalane in the intestine, and “viaceral parasites” inthe liver, Tings, and kidneys. Webster etal. (1978) described a new species sftnematode, Halocereus monoceris, found in the lungs of nar- ‘whale. Two species of whale lice, Cyamus nodosus and Cyamus ‘monodontis, live in wounds ancl the skin around the base of the tusk (Porsild, 1922: Leung, 1965: Tomlin, 1967). Hay and Ser {geant (1076) reported that Cyamas is sometimes found in the tal hotch as wel, ‘Yablokov (1974) surmised thet two main populations of na wls exist in the Eurasian eetic, one near Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya and the other in the vicinity of the Chukchi Sea. He ‘estimated total population of several thousand in Soviet waters, ‘Mansfield et al (1975) made a conservative estimate of 10,000 for Canada and northwest Greenland. Greendale and. Brouss Greendale (1976) counted more than 6,000 moving westward in ster Sound in 1976, Davis et al (1978), after monitoring ration into Lancaster Sound during summer 1976 by aerial Surveys over both offshore and coastal waters, estimated between 20,000 and 80,000 for this area. Movements north in spring and south in winter along the wrest coast of Greenland may depend on temperature Ruetwations tind wind and water currents (Vibe, 1967), Mass migrations into And out of kishore areas are dramatic and predictable (Vibe, 195 Greendale and Brosseau-Greendale, 1976), Such migrations ap~ pear to be clovely related to the breskap of fe i late spring and the formation of fee in autumn. ‘Occasionally narwhals are trapped in fjords when jee pre- vents them from returning to the open sea. This entrapment is {eferred to as sareeat by the Eskimos of Greenland, where itis ost frequent. ‘The crowded animals sometimes splash water ‘onto the iy tim of their breathing bole as they surface to breathe, thereby inadvertenty reinforcing the ice trap. As freezing com tinues the whales are restricted to an eversmaller area of open water, Whales confined inthis manner become an eas¥ target for hhuntere, Sarseats have been reported and described by Porsikd (018) Freuchen (1935), Vibe (1950), and Kapel (1977). “Avtempts to maintain narwls in eaptivity have failed. The first one tobe exhibited was # neonate flowa from Grise Fjord to the New York Aquarium: i died after one month (Bruemmer, 1960). In 1970 six were captured, one from near Grise Fjord and the others from Eelipee Sound, and exhibited at the Vancouver Public Aquarium, All died within four months (Newman, 1970), Primitive hunting techniques (asing kayak, harpoon atached ealakin flat, and lance) are still used in Nosth id for ting narwhals (Durham, 1977), and the average annual landed eateh there fs 300 whales iKapel, 1975). Thie eateh is similar to that of the entie eastern arctic of Canada (Smith and Taylor, 177) In most areas aborigines now buat with motorized freight canoes and highpowered flea, and often with harpoons and fats to ensure retrieval (Reeves, 1976. Some hunting with rifles and harpaons is done from the ice during spring and summer breakup (Wilkinson, 1955), and many ‘wounded whales are lost as they awim or sink beneath the ice (Smith and Taylor, 1977; Kapel, 1972). Open-water hunting in summer often invalves driving the animals into, coastal shoals before shooting them, a practice which significantly reduces loss. Eskimos traditionally used narwhal blubber il for heating and cooking, and sinews were dried and split for use as thread (Vibe, 1950), The skin (called muktuk or mattak) i a delicacy in harwbal-hunting communities, Much of the carcass is now dis- Carded (Land, 1977), although according to Kapel (977), skin, ‘meat and blubber are still important as human food and dog foo in Nomth Greenland ‘There i long history of casual, o opportunistic, hunting of rarwhals by commercial whalers, whose principal quarry was the bowled whale, Balaena mystictins (Scoresby, 1820, 1623; Mur- doch, 1917; Lubbock, 1957. White taders sometimes bartered {or narwhal tusks from Eskimos (Ross, 1975). The tusk’s com mercial value derives mainly from its ornamental and supersti- tious appeal BEHAVIOR. Monadon monoceros in gregarious, commonly found in pods of six 20 individuals Seoreeby, 1820; Vibe, 1950),MAMMALIAN SPECIES 127 Greendale and Brousseau-Greendale (1976) observed migrating groups of one 21 animals, although most groups incladed three {oeight. These tmaller groups seem to coalesce during migrations to form loosely associated herds of many hundreds, ‘Narwhals occur in ether mixed or segregated groups. Males, females, and juveniles have been observed together (Pedersen, 1931; Vibe, 1950), Scoresby (1820, 1828) reported groups of one sex only. Greendale and Brousseau-Greendale (1976) saw all-male froups, family or mixed groups, and groups: of females with Young. Judging from the smaller than expected numbers of adult males in catch statistics (Vibe, 1950; Mansfeld et a..1975; Hay and Sergeant, 1976), females and young may penetrate deeper int fjords and remain eloser wo shore than adult males. Tals is particularly interesting when one considers that hunting is often Selective for animals with large tusks, which are usually adult males, ‘When chased, narwhals generally remain in tight swimming formation and respire simultaneously (teeves, unpublished ob- servation) Hay and Sergeant (1976) observed that small pods stay together under the stress caused by helicopter overfights and ‘opensivater hunting forays Narwhals remain in the vicinity of pack ice throughout the year. Behavior of narwhele trapped in saesate was described by Parsild (1918, 1922) and Vibe (1950). Breathing holes are main- tained with thrusts ofthe thick meloa, sometimes by several an- Inals at once. Porsild measured ice cakes 180 mm thick that were broken by rapped narwhals. Freuchen (1985) described nat ‘whale being lited from the water by companions struggling to each the surface. Porsild (1918) described large males pushing away weaker males and females. ‘The probable function uf the tusk has attracted much spec ulation. Seoreshy (1823) and Gray fin Buckland, 1890) observed “fencing” with their tusks, but Porsild (1918) and Freuchen (1935) described how carefully they avoid contncting cach other with their tusks in saisats. Scoresby (1823) conjece tured that the tusk might be used like a spear to procure food and Freuchen suggested it could be used as a ake to str up food from the bottom sediments. AS most females are tuskless, its importance for the procurement of food is doubtful. The most likely hypothesis i thatthe task isa secondary sex characteristic (Sliper, 1962; MansBeld ets, 1975) he sounds of the marwhal, audible i the air, have heen likened to-a""goggling of water inthe throat” (Scoresby, 1823), a “deep grovl or groan, something lke a bear or a cow” (Murdoch, 1917), and a “shril, whistlesike sound . sometimes relieved by a shor blast with deep tones” (Freuchen, 1985). Most ofthese sounds are probably associated with respiration (Ford and Fisher, 1978), Analysis of hydrophone recordings led Watkins etal. (971) to conclude that narwhals are less vocal than white whales, but Ford and Fisher sed a much longer recording. and described narwhals as “extremely loquacious underwater.” ‘Narwhals produce click series and rapidly pulsed sounds; less often they emit purestone signals, or whistles. Unbike those of most odontocetes, echolocation elicks prodiced by narwhals have narrow-band rather than broad-band frequeney content, Neverthe- Teas, they are probably uted for echolocation, The pulsed tones, fm the other hand, whieh often occur in long, repetitive series fre believed to be communication signals, Ford and Fisher (1978) hypothesized that exch individual narwhal has its own type of pulsed tone, a kind of “signature.” The puretone whistles of sonhals ere similar to those of other odontocetes and probably ve primarily as socal signals. GENETICS. Andrews etal. (1973) reported a diploid chro- rmosome number of 4, and noted thatthe karyotype of the twhal is similar to those af most other cetaceans REMARKS. The root, nar, is generally assumed to have ‘come from Old Norse, referring to a human corpse (Lehmann, 1965). The animal's pale underside and mottled Hanks could act count for such an association. So also could the medieval notion that ingestion of narwhal flesh leads to sickness and death. Ba tholn in 1645 (quoted in Beer, 1977) thought it was “known as the harwhal because it feeds on dead bodies.” Lehmann rejected the Tink with death, arguing instead that the name derived from the prot-Geemanie narwa (narrow), designating the species ax Phe whale with a narrow projection or tisk ‘The narwhal’s tusk is clearly the basis for many artistic ren- ditions of the unicorn horn. Beer (1977) adduced evidence that the unicorn myth antedated by many centuries the discovery of the narwhal by Europeans, and was atleast partly built around ‘observations of terrestrial animals like the oryx and thinoceros Ihas been suggested that a brisk trade in “unicorn” horns from 5 the Greenland Sea was established by the fest half of the 13th century (Dunbabin, 1950). Apparently it was in the interest of merchants to maintain the mystery shrouding the source of their Supply of unicorn horns, So it wae not until 1638 thatthe Danish it, Die Wurm, established the link between the coveted Alicoen (a unicorn horn was often called) and the narwhal (Bon- rez, 951) “The authors are indebted to James G. Mead and Robert L. Brownell Je, forestcally reading an early daft of this account. LITERATURE CITED Aguayo, A. 1978. Smaller cetaceans in the Baltic Sea. Rep Tat, Whal. Comm. 28:181-106 Andrews,J.C..F-J. Dil, S. Masui,and HD. Fisher. 1973. ‘The ‘chromosome complement of the narchal (Monodon mono: eros). Canadian} Genet. Cytol, 15:949-353. Arvy.[, 1978. Le narval (Monodon monoceros L.), Acta Zook Pathol. Aniverpiensia 73:43-118. Beck, B., and A. W. Mansfield, 1969, Observations on the Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus, in northern Bat fin Island. Jour. Fish, Res. Bd. Canada, 26:14. Beddard, F-E. 1900. A book of whales. G. P. 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