Drone footage reveals the secret of why the narwhal got its horn

FOR hundreds of years the mysterious narwhal, with its strange protruding tusk, has captivated the imagination of mariners.

But its “horn” has remained a puzzle, with some scientists thinking it may allow the mammals to joust with rivals, while others believe it could be a tool of echolocation or even an ice pick.

Now footage captured using aerial drones has found that narwhal use the tusk to stun Arctic cod, rendering them immobile and easier to capture and eat.

The record of never-before-seen behaviour was released by the WWF, which was monitoring a group of narwhal in Tremblay Sound, Canada, alongside Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Rod Downie, head of polar programmes at WWF, said: “Narwhals are one of the most magical creatures on our planet. So it’s no surprise that they have gained an almost mythical status as the ‘unicorns of the sea’.

“The narwhal is one of the least studied animals because it is so hard to get to the Arctic areas where it lives. So drones are helping us study its behaviour.”

The tusk is a canine tooth which spirals anti-clockwise up to nine feet forward from the head of adult males and contains thousands of nerve endings. Tusks washing up on the shore are thought to have inspired tales of unicorns. The drone footage has also revealed narwhal feeding patterns, which helps conservationists know which areas need protection from shipping or overfishing. There are only around 110,000 narwhal left in the wild, and every summer three quarters of the world’s population migrate to the Canadian Sounds.

Often known as the unicorn of the sea thanks to the male’s horn, which can be up to 9ft long, there are only 110,000 narwhal left in the world. Three quarters of them migrate to Canadian waters every summer