Page 23 - Super Shark Encyclopedia

TUSKS TOGETHER
Like many other whales and UNICORN OF
dolphins, narwhals socialize
with one another and live in
groups called pods. Sometimes THE SEA
several hundred narwhals from
different pods will gather
together to form huge herds.
NARWHAL

The freezing waters of the Arctic are home to the
ocean’s one-tusked wonder: the narwhal. Its tusk is really
a canine tooth that grows through its upper lip. The only
other tooth—a second canine—is small and useless for
chewing. Instead, this white whale sucks up small animal
prey from the bottom of the sea. No one knows for
sure why the narwhal has a tusk, but tusks are longer
in males—suggesting that they might use them for
impressing the females. Sometimes narwhals have been
spotted using their tusks in jousting contests.

AT A GLANCE

• SIZE 13–20 ft (4–6 m) long • LOCATION Arctic Ocean, mainly
(not including tusk) from Canada, Greenland, and
• HABITAT Cold, deep ocean waters western Russia
around pack ice • DIET Fish, squid, and shrimp

STATS AND FACTS
2 5 MAXIMUM TUSK LENGTH

MIN ft 5 10
MAX. DIVE DURATION
m 1 2 3
8¾ ft (2.7 m)

MAXIMUM DIVING DEPTH
ft 2,500 5,000
USUAL POD SIZE
m 400 800 1,200 1,600
UP TO 4,920 ft (1,500 m)
2 0

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