Science Friday - Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

We’re taking a polar plunge into the science of sea unicorns, also known as narwhals!Narwhals are mysterious arctic whales with long, twirly tusks protruding from their foreheads, like a creature out of a fairy tale. And it turns out that we don’t know too much about them, partly because they live so far north in the remote Arctic.An international team of researchers used drones to observe narwhals in the wild and learned new things about their behavior, including how they use their tusks to hunt and play.Host Flora Lichtman gets on the horn with Dr. Gregory O’Corry-Crowe, research professor and biologist at Florida Atlantic University, who was an author on the new narwhal study, published last month in Frontiers in Marine Science.Guest: Dr. Greg O’Corry-Crowe is a research professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.Transcripts for each episode are available at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Hey, I'm Flor Lichten, and you're listening to Science Friday. Today on the show, let's say you're a sea mammal, born with a 10-foot tusks sticking out of the front of your head. What would you use it for? They actually use their tusks as not just a display or a weapon. They use it as a kind of surgical instrument to catch prey. This year has seen a rise in the use of the term unicorn to describe everything from basketball stars to AI startups. So we thought we'd dive back into one of our favorite conversations of 2025 about the science of real-life unicorns. I am talking, of course, about narwhals. These are the mysterious Arctic whales with those long, twirly tusks protruding from their foreheads.

They look like a creature out of a fairy tale, and it turns out we don't know too much about them. They're hard to study, partly because they live so far north in the remote Arctic. So an international team of researchers had this idea. They turned to drones to observe them, and they learned all these new things about this storied creature. On the horn to tell us more is Dr. Greg O'Coree Crow, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University based in Boca Raton, Florida. Greg, welcome to Science Friday. Thank you for having me. Okay. Are Narwhals mysterious?

Yes, I think so. I think they fire the human imagination, as you say, with their incredible tusks that are truly amazing. natural features. And as you mentioned earlier, you know, they live in quite remote, challenging locations and are known to few. But fortunately for us, we partnered with indigenous communities in the far north to set out and learn more about this incredible animal. What did you learn about them? So a big challenge up to now has been actually just getting to observe them in the wild. We've been fortunate to work from boats, sometimes. and from the sea ice. But with the advent of drones, we've been able to sort of get this bird's eye view and this unique insight. And we're learning that they have very complex, sophisticated societies.

And there's a lot of interesting interactions between individual animals and other species. And, you know, the hits just keep coming. Every day we fly, we see something completely new and amazing. Well, let's dive into some of those interactions. What are they doing? So in the summer, the general understanding is they've spent a long time in the winter feeding, and they've spent a lot of the spring migrating north as the ice retreats. And so in the summer, when they come in some locations close to shore, it really wasn't very clear what they were doing. And what we're starting to realize is they spend a lot of time socializing,

probably resting after a long journey. and when animals have time on their hands, they get up to some pretty interesting behaviors. And one of them we got to see was how they actually used their tusks in a way we never really knew about. What are they doing with those tusks? Tell us. So basically, the general understanding is these tusks have evolved as what we call secondary sexual characteristics. They're involved in mating behavior, only males or predominantly males have them. But they're using their tusks sometimes to track down, manipulate, stun, and sometimes kill fish. So they actually use their tusks as not just a display or a weapon.

They use it as a kind of surgical instrument to catch prey. To spear them? Or what are they doing with them? So that's a very good question. They usually seem to focus on a particular fish, in this case, the Arctic char, track it, and then they whack it basically and slow it down, maybe stun it and then consume it. We started to pick up on other things. And in one amazing encounter,

we realized that they actually weren't trying to really even injure, let alone kill and consume the fish. It appeared that what they were actually doing was just playing and exploring. Like a cat toying with a mouse? Yes, it was like play with your food, you know. And so this is the first sort of documented example of Norval's playing. The other thing that was so striking was the tusk looks like a giant broadsword that you might wield to inflict some injury and yet they were using it like, you know, a surgical instrument in very

precisely interrogating, messing with basically this fish. Several times a fish would stop as if to say, what are you guys doing? I've had enough. I've had enough of this. And in the process of actually observing this, we noticed a lot of interesting interactions between the narwhals themselves. And some of it looks like it's, you know, social learning and possibly even social instruction from one whale to another, which is pretty remarkable. Like one narwhal is doing something with their tusk and then the other one copies it? Yeah, I think, you know, and that's something we are particularly focused on. We're doing a lot of research on beluga whales as well as narwhals and trying to understand how

that kind of social learning, short circuits, ways to. innovate and start sort of new behaviors in a changing Arctic. So, you know, rather than everybody having to figure it out for themselves, somebody has a bright idea and everybody copies it and things kind of go viral. Hmm. I mean, isn't this the basis of culture, passing down ideas? You've asked a wonderful question. So I agree. I think we're starting to see other animals that have culture as well as humans and other primates, including beluga whales and the crooks of that is passing down traditional behaviors and activities through social learning. But one of the concerns I have is sometimes cultures and traditions, as we know, you can become hidebound by

tradition. And if something changes, you know, are you going to be actually able to respond? And so in the Arctic, you know, are animals like narwhals and belugas going to be stuck in a kind of rut as to, well, we've always done it this way, versus on the other side, the innovator saying, well, let's try something new. And social learning is key to both of those things. And that's really what we're up there trying to understand. How are Norwal's adapting to climate-driven changes in the Arctic? Are they threatened? Is it harming them? Well, it's quite challenging. And they're probably one of the most challenging species to study. Unfortunately, we have our indigenous partners in Nunavut and other places who are the real experts in Narval. And their concern is that it's not just the loss

of sea ice and maybe shifting prey bases, but the increase in human activities and especially increases in ocean noise from shipping and oil and gas exploration. So our team, which includes a lot of Canadian scientists from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and some of the subsistence hunters from villages in Nunavut, are trying to actually ask that particular question. how are they dealing with this major shift? You know, a big aha for our team. So we all watched the videos associated with this paper. And listeners, you can watch them too at our website at sciencefriday.com slash tusk.

Highly recommend. A big aha for us was how long these tusks are. Oh, yeah. No, it's incredible. I mean, they can grow to 10 feet in length. And they really are remarkable structure. And when you're sort of standing in the water, right beside an arwall, and you're just mesmerized by the beauty of it as well, because it has

this beautiful scroll pattern. It almost looks like it has been carved. And when seafarers brought these back to Europe and to Asia, you can imagine how the myth of the unicorn became real to a lot of people. They're just magnificent structures. What are they made of? They are a tooth. So basically, they're a very specialized tooth that comes. comes out through the front of the head, as I said, predominantly in males. They are interestingly quite sensitive to the environment in terms of they have the ability to sort of respond to changes in salinity and temperature. And so one other potential use is that the narwhal tusk is kind of a environmental probe.

Really? Like an antenna or something? Well, it's like a Swiss army knife, you know, it has multiple applications. So I think there's just so much more to learn. The other thing I thought was fascinating was, and you'll see it from the videos, how subtle their movements are, how precise and careful their behavior is with the fish, and that ability to move it with such precision and manipulate a small object was really incredible. Yeah, especially when it's 10 feet long.

Exactly. Like I can barely hold a fork. You know what I mean? True. Yeah, I mean, and it's a heavy object as well. well. So we want to continue this research. We want to go back and learn more. But every day, as I said, in camp, we would just sort of review what we just saw and look at each other and go, did we really just see that? Wow. You know, as someone who has experienced a drone buzzing over my head,

they can be annoying. Did you have to worry about disturbing the narwhals? Well, a very good point. And I think a lot of the impetus behind this work was, could we use methods that minimize disturbance? And so could we fly drones that are quiet and fly them at an altitude so we are not disturbing the animals? We deployed hydrophones in the water to listen to them. And so the whole concept was, you know, rather than maybe the traditional methods of trying to get close in boats and get hands-on animals, could we take a step back and that has been the really exciting part. You know, yes, we have this new technology,

but it's old school science. It's about stepping back and just observing nature and letting it unfold in front of you. And we were able to, without disturbing these animals, just sort of become kind of part of their environment and all this things started to happen around us. And it was like an eye-opener for a lot of us that, you know, we need to go back to.

to this what I call notebook and pencil kind of natural history. That's fascinating that this very new technology actually allows us to go, you know, back to tried and true methods of observational science. Yes, and I think, you know, technology over the last 30, 40 years has been a revelation and a revolution in a lot of what we do with remote cetacean species, whether it's satellite tagging or genetics or aerial surveys. and they will continue to provide new insights. You know, I think a lot of people at one time in their life, myself included,

have dreamed of being a marine biologist. Is studying Norwell's like unlocking expert level for marine biology? I mean, to me, I've had a passion for the high north and for looking at social species in so many ways, beluga whales and narwhals are kind of the holy grail for what I want to. study and what is very important is there's also been this kind of dawning among scientists that stakeholders, particularly indigenous people and their knowledge is just as valuable in some cases more so and so these kind of team approaches as you say this international team is the only way we can

unlock these kind of secrets but at the end of the day it's about just spending time in the wilderness with animals, and then they will reveal their secrets. Thank you for taking us into the wilderness today. It's very refreshing. Thank you. Thank you very much. Dr. Greg O'Coree Crowe is a research professor at Florida Atlantic University based in Boca Raton, Florida. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review us, if you like the show.

And you can always leave us a comment on this segment on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you. Today's episode was produced by D. Peter Schmidt. I'm Flora Lichten. Thanks for listening.