NARWHAL’S TUSK

Dec. 4, 2019

A woman who was at Fishmongers Hall during the London Bridge attack has praised a man that grabbed a huge narwhal tusk before heading outside to confront the attacker.

Narwhal:

Scientific name: Monodon Monoceros.
Physical features: The narwhal or narwhale, is a medium-sized toothed whale that possesses a large "tusk" from a protruding canine tooth.
Distribution: It lives year-round in the Arctic waters around Greenland, Canada, and Russia.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) status: Least Concern.

Narwhal’s Tusk:

The narwhal’s tusk is actually a hollow tooth that grows through the whale’s lip, reaching up to nine feet in length.
Narwhal is the only whale that has a tusk; and the narwhal’s tusk is the only one in the animal kingdom that protrudes straight like a lance.
The tusk has a spiral — the thread runs counter-clockwise along its length, and can be swivelled by the whale up to 12 degrees.
The tusk is almost always a male privilege, grows through the whale’s lifetime, and can weigh around 10 kg. About one in 500 narwhals grows a double tusk.
Most scientists agree that it is primarily a sexual trait used by males to compete for mates and to determine rank in pods.

Source : Indian Express