@qurlyjoe then we'd be like #Narwhals that die in a panic attack because their heart then beats even slower, causing them to die from Hypoxia..

A group of narwhals is called a blessing

#Narwhals #FunFact

Cool paper. Narwhals are apparently really bad at hunting in summer. 86-92% of summer foraging dives come up empty, adding up to them eating less than 0.5% of their body mass per day.

That makes packing on the pounds in winter even more important than we thought. It's a big step to prioritizing conservation of the places they need most to fatten up and survive summer.

Paper is free and open to read: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0423

#narwhals #MarineMammals #oceans #MarineBiology #SciComm #OpenScience

#Narwhals' hungry summers as climate warms https://phys.org/news/2023-02-narwhals-climate-vulnerable-winter-crucial-survival.html 🐳 #MarineMammals #MarineScience #Cetaceans #Whales #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

"As global warming causes Arctic waters to heat up and sea ice to melt, #MarineAnimals adapted to a cloistered life are threatened by the arrival of other #aquaticmammals and by increases in human activity.

The three #whale species that live in the #arctic year-round— #narwhals, #belugas and #bowheads—are particularly at risk."

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-cloistered-arctic-whales-bigger-climate.html#!

Extremely niche question about #narwhals for #cetacean or #animalweapon researchers:

Female narwhals sometimes develop tusks. Is there any data out there on how much these tusks vary in size, or any research on female tusks specifically?

Narwhals

_____
palette: https://lospec.com/palette-list/winter-wonderland

#PixelArt #narwhals #dithering #winterwonderland48

Link: For a dentist, the narwhal’s smile is a mystery of evolution

'“It is striking when you think that this animal decided to take all of its tooth-producing energy and put it into one thing [a tusk] that sticks out nine feet into the ocean. With the amount of energy that it takes to produce that one tusk it could easily have 30 to 40 teeth in its mouth doing other things,” Nweeia explains. “Evolutionary-wise something is saying don’t do this, instead it is better to grow this extraordinary tusk.” A pretty compelling reason must be behind such a decision.”
[...]
There are many kinds of curious expressions of teeth in whales, narwhals being the most extraordinary, Nweeia says. “The strap-toothed whale, for example, has two teeth that wrap over its upper jaw preventing the animal from opening its mouth.”'

https://insider.si.edu/2012/04/for-dentist-the-narwhals-smile-is-a-mystery-of-evolution/

#animals #biology #nature #whales #narwhals
(Via @sohkamyung )