August 29, 2024 • 21 mins
Will and Mango go deep on Narwhals-- from how they became one of New York City's greatest mascots, to how to spot a real Narwhal tusk from a fake at your local pawn shop, to why you might want to avoid ordering the Narwhal sushi... plus, we explain why everyone's on the look out for a baby Narluga (the hot new designer Beluga/Narwhal hybrid).
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mengo, what's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right, So I was doing a little research on
narwals this week, which is handy because the episode is
about narwals, and I think one of the reasons narwals
are so intriguing is that you actually can't find a
narwal at a zoo. Did you know this?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know? I never really thought about that, And it's
weird because you see all these other Arctic creatures like
whales and polar bears and things like that, So are
they an endangerous species?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
For the longest time, To be honest, I actually thought
that they were mythological creatures. I thought it was like
the unicorn of the sea, and so I thought maybe
that was why. But actually, there are tons of narwals
in the wild. The latest count is that they're about
one hundred and seventy thousand of them in the Arctic,
way more than I realized, which is a great thing.
And they're huge, like their bodies are eighteen feet long
(00:58):
and you can add another ten feet for their horn,
no joke.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So that's like a twenty eight foot program height.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yes, yeah, which is impressive. But you know, because they
live a lot of their life under the ice and
in these really cold, dark regions of the water, we
don't really know a whole lot about them. But more importantly,
when you take them out of their homes, they just
don't do that well. So unlike porpoises or beluga whales,
which are close cousins and actually can do okay in aquariums,
(01:26):
narwals really react badly when they're in captivity.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So this has actually been tried before.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, there've only been a couple of attempts, at least
two that I am aware of. So there was one
in Coney Island. Of course, I think we had to
assume if there was going to be an effort, there
would be in Coney Island, and the narwhal was kept
with a beluga and fed milk and chopped up clams.
I'm not sure there was a great diet or a
lot of thought put into that. But then there was
another one in Vancouver where there were a bunch of
(01:53):
calves and an adult brought in. But in both cases
the acidity and carbon dioxide levels and the narwhals blow
fell and then their oxygen rises, so they can die
pretty quickly because of this. But actually, if you go
outside of captivity, they typically live to be fifty years old,
even reach ages of one hundred in some cases, which
is pretty awesome. Anyway, if you want to see a
(02:15):
real live narwhalet, there is only one way. You gotta
head north.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, I don't think I have any plans to get
to the Arctic and then your future, but why don't
we dive into the episode instead?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That sounds great?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot Ticket and sitting behind that desk. And
it took me a while to realize what was going on.
I mean, though it was pretty obvious. Dylan is sitting
in an ice bath. I think he's just trying to
recreate the situation. He's dedicated. That's our good friend, producer, Dylan.
(03:11):
All Right, mego. So I am both very excited about
this week's episode because I knew nothing about narwals before
this week. But I'm also curious why are we doing
an episode on narwals again? Because I don't know if
there was something in the news or in the politics cycle.
There's a lot happening in politics right now. I don't
know if Narwals are involved, So what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah? I guess narwalls are related to whales, and there
was that strange RFK Junior story this week about his
obsession with that whales head. But that is not the
reason I chose Narwals. I wanted to do something on
them because my family went to Provincetown this summer, which
is gorgeous, and there was a museum there that had
this enormous Narwal tusk displayed in it, and I was
kind of enamored by it. The tussa really beautiful, like
(03:52):
ten feet long and spiraled and really elegant, and you
can't imagine them being attached to this like big doufacy cree.
But it made me realize I know nothing about narwals
like you, and I thought this would be a good opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Do for see that that's a pretty that's pretty low.
But I was definitely down to do this episode. So
where do you want to start?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Well, why don't we start with a little primer on
these magnificent tuss and what they really are? So if
you look back at old drawings of narwalals, like the
ones that Vikings made, the initial drawings kind of look
like a unicorn's head transplanted onto a whale's body. But
over time sailors and then scientists realize that it isn't
some magical horn, but in fact a tooth. It turns
(04:35):
out the horn is actually a left canine tooth that
grows enormously long and mostly shows up in male.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Nor wallls, and it's just one tooth that grows like this.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, I mean you sort of see this happening in
other species, like fiddler crabs have that one claw that's
giant and it almost looks like a bicep. I love
when they're on the Jersey shore and they fist pumped. Ye,
it's amazing, but I guess favoring one side over the
other something that happens in nature. The other thing that's
funny about it is that narwals are considered a tooth
(05:05):
wail because of these tusks, but when you look inside
their mouths, they actually don't have any teeth in there.
It's almost like a newborn baby. And I'm going to
show you this photo because I think it's so weird.
It's kind of fuzzy and non threatening. And that's because
nar wals just swallow their food. They don't chew it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I can't even tell what I'm looking at. Yeah, it
looks like an animal in itself. But if they can't
eat with this tooth, what do they do with it?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Like?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Is it a weapon to spear food? Or what's it for?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
The tusk has actually been perplexing scientists for centuries. Charles
Darwin thought it might be some sort of sexual characteristic
that attracted mates, kind of the way peacock's beautiful plumage
draws pea hens to it.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Actually, it's fun to think about Darwin analyzing narwals. I mean,
he really saw such a range of species.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, and it's amazing for such a shy and kind
of elusive Arctic creature to be that well known. But
also Darwin thought that maybe narwals use the tust to
oust one another, kind of the way bighorn sheep headbutt
for dominance.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So do nar walls joust for mates?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
No, so the males do rub their tusts against each other,
But apparently it's less about jousting and more about cleaning
the tusts, which get various parasites and waighale lice on it.
It's kind of a communal toothbrushing that they do.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So, if these big twisted canine teeth aren't weapons and
they can't chew food, why do Narwals have them?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So, Harvard Marine Mammal Dental scientists, which currently is a
thing you have recently discovered that these tusts are actually
precise instruments for navigating the water. One scientist told Wired quote.
It takes a tremendous amount of energy and devotion to
get that thing to grow. To expend that much energy
in such a harsh environment, there has to be a
(06:50):
pretty compelling reason to do it, And it turns out
it's all about measuring the water salinity. Apparently, the teeth
are filled with a nerve rich pulp and this can
tell them whether the water is higher or lower concentrations
of salt, which to a Narwal means that either an
iceberg is melting or more importantly, an iceberg is forming,
(07:11):
so that the nar Wals don't get trapped under the ice.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Anyway, from what we understand right now, all this chemical
sensitivity in the tusk allows them to move through the
environment better.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, no, that's interesting, all right, Well, since we're talking
about tusk, here's a quick fact that I saw. So
one of the stranger things about Narwal tusk is that
their tusk always spiral to the left, so counterclockwise. And
even in cases where nar Wals do have two tusks,
both teeth which protrude from the right and left sides
of the jaw, they spiral left.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That's so weird. I guess if someone tries to sell
you a Narwal tooth that spiral is right, you know
it's a fake.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It's really the best way to tell. That's always the
rule of thumb. And another interesting thing is that Narwals
are slow swimmers. You can actually walk faster than a
nar wall swims at three point eight miles per hour.
One thing that's delightful about them is that they often
swim on their backs because when they're feeding on the
ocean floor, they don't want to damage their tusk, which
(08:08):
makes sense. I've not really thought about that, So they
swim upside down. And one last thing about the tust
is that because they spend so much of their time
under the cover of ice or deep in the ocean floor.
Scientists haven't really been able to observe narwals eating, but
through analyzing the tust you can actually get that data.
So one scientist from McGill University put it quote, instead
(08:30):
of doing forty years of work to get forty years
of data in one year, you can get narwal tusk
and go back fifty years of time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's really interesting. So has it taught has anything surprising?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Apparently Narwals used to eat more cod and haliban in
their diet, but as the Arctic ice has been melting,
they've changed their diets to eating more open ocean fish
like capalin, which are related to smelt. But narwals need
quite a bit of food to sustain themselves, so nearly
sixty six pounds of fish a day, or as one
blogger put it, the equivalent of two hundred and sixty
four filao fish. Pretty yummy, right, But the worry is that,
(09:05):
as Wired puts it, not all fish are created equal.
Arctic species are more nutritious energy wise, and to survive
the cold, fish need to pack on fat, which means
more calories for the predators that feed on them like narwals,
So Essentially, if the food they're eating is less nutritious
and less fatty, it might affect not only their energy
(09:27):
levels but also their migratory patterns.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So obviously, nar walls have become immensely popular in pop culture.
I feel like there are always these animals that surge
in popularity for little periods. There was a period where
everyone loved sloths, right when Kristen Bell was obsessed. Paris
Hilton made kinkajus a thing for a.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Bit, that's right. I think her pet was named was
it Baby Love?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, and she kept it until it bit her.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But it's a good time to decide.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Maybe not to keep a wild animal. Yeah. And then
of course you had like honey bat just went through
an Internet phase where you know, everyone was worried that
they didn't care much, and narwalls have sort of come
into this period as well, and they've benefited from this
Internet discovery. There are plushy narwalls for sale all over
the Internet. There are narwal horn candies that exist. But
(10:19):
one thing I was curious about was whether any colleges
or universities had picked up on this excitement and turned
the narwal into a mascot.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's a good question. So what did you find out?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, apparently it's been hiding under my nose all the time.
Right here in New York City at the New School.
They've made Narls the Narwal the mascot.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Such a good name too.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And actually, Lizzie did her MFA at the New School
and I asked her, why didn't you tell me that
nar Wals were the mascot? And she was like, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Think you'd care.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Of course I care. Yeah, And they only created the
mascot in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So why did they make the narwal the mascot instead
of like a bulldog or a blue devil for instance?
What made that decision?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I mean, it is funny for a school that doesn't
have a giant sports program to even want a mascot,
But I guess that's where administrators saw this as an opportunity.
The school thought having a mascot would be a good
idea to draw the student population together, and so they
did a survey of what should be the school mascot,
and the Narwhal narrowly edged out a cigarette.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Okay, glad it was a close one.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Cigarette's a pretty funny mascot. Because it's so lit, as
the kids said. But luckily the narwal one and it
provided this unique opportunity to showcase that if you're a
unique and lovable weirdo, this is the school for you.
And they further refined that sales picture over the years.
According to an article in the New School Free Press,
this is in twenty twenty one, the university rebranded the
(11:42):
marine mascot from wearing a basketball jersey and being pretty
sporty to swapping it for a glasses wearing non binary
student with a Pisces sun sign to better reflect the
new school community. Now apparently, Narls is a dual major
BABFA and Environmental Studies and Communication design, and also, as
I mentioned before, is non binary and is possibly the
(12:04):
first mascot to use they them pronouns. All of this
puts them in like my top five mascots of all time,
with the trash Pandas, the Banana Slugs, the Delaware Blue Hens,
and of course the Philly fanatic. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I knew you're going to throw him in there, but
that's that's pretty great. Well, as long as we're doing
some of the sillier facts. As someone from Alabama, one
of The first things I wanted to know about narwal's
was how they taste, because they look like such fatty creatures,
and of course I want to know can you barbecue them?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I mean, I'm guessing a narwhal would be great for
a tailgate.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But when you learn, well, the first thing is that
for people with our palette, you're probably more likely to
enjoy than narwal skin, which tastes weirdly like hazel nuts,
more than the meat.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I mean, I'd be down for some narwal nutella right.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, the meat is another story, of course. For the Inuit,
narwal is a delicacy and it's really important, like the
flesh is full of vitamins and particularly vital and see,
so freezers are stocked with this stuff and it is
super popular. Any it can freely hunt narwal because the
population isn't at risk, though apparently it's tough work because
(13:11):
you know, once you've harpooned a narwal, they're like one
and a half tons and they sink fast, so you
really have to lug them in quickly. But in terms
of how the meat taste, you can either boil it
and serve it with soy sauce or chew it raw,
and according to a reporter from the Smithsonian who was
excited to try it, taste a little bit like rubber
(13:31):
and kind of like congealed gravy. So not the worst
taste exactly, but not exactly appetizing either.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, that's not a great sales pitch, right, So here's
a super quick one. I know, we talked about narwals
growing two tuss and I was curious how many of
the narwals actually do this. Apparently it's more frequent than
I was expecting. About one in five hundred male narwals
will grow a pair of tuss. The other question that
gets asked a lot is do female narwals grow tuss?
(13:59):
And the answer to that is also yes, about fifteen
percent of female narwals grow tuss, which just goes to
show you there's a lot of variation in nature.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
All right, Well, since you wanted to talk about the
tusk again, I don't know if you've noticed we keep
coming back to the touch. Let's talk about how narwals
are sometimes called the unicorn of the sea. So the
Latin name for narwals, Monodon monicros, means one tooth, one horn.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It sounds like a like a rallying cry, let's go
to battle with one tooth.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
One tooth, one horn. You just kind of go. You
don't question it, you just say it loud, and then
you do whatever happens after that. But back in the
Middle Ages, every land animal was believed to have a
counterpart from the sea, and because people desperately wanted to
believe in unicorns, especially the Scottish people, where the unicorn
is still the national animal. As soon as this tust
(14:51):
whale was discovered, it was used to bolster the case
for unicorns. But it wasn't long before these tusts were
passed off as genuine unicorn horns. The tusk, as we mentioned,
are really beautiful in the way they're spiraled and long,
so Vikings and other traders could pass them off as
unicorn horns and sell them for ten times their weight
in gold. Now, of course, for buyers, just having a
(15:14):
unicorn horn and your cabinet of curiosities might be exciting,
but there was also a myth that unicorn horns could
neutralize poisons and cure depression several other things, so they
were often turned into cups for royalty and carved into
other supposedly magical items. In fact, one of the more
expensive narwald tusk was the one that Queen Elizabeth received
(15:35):
from an explorer of her court. The gift was bejeweled
and carved, and at the time it was worth ten
thousand pounds sterling, which, according to the site Majestic Whale Encounters,
which was the equivalent cost of a modest castle at
the time, or a little more than four million pounds today.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh wow, I like the idea of trading a horn
for a castle.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's pretty great. Yeah, it's just a modesele to me, exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, I know we've got to throw to break, but
we'll be back with more.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Facts in just a minute.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Welcome back to Part time Genius. We're talking all things
narwal All right, Mango, what factor are you gonna end
with today?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, one of the things you mentioned at the top
was that belugas and narwals are cousins. And there's actually
an interesting story that scientists have been following since twenty
sixteen when a pod of beluga whales adopted a stranded narwhale.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So do narwals travel in pods? Too?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, just like whales, they travel together. They travel in
groups of fifteen to twenty, and it's to keep them
safe from predators like killer whales, polar bears, and walruses.
So narwals are used to traveling in groups. But apparently
this adopted narwhal just turned twelve years old, which is
exciting because it means we can help throw bar mitzva
next year as long as it learns. You know, it's
(17:02):
half torah a portion, But actually entering its teens means
that the narwal goes from being a boy to man,
and scientists are excited about this because they want to
know whether the narwal will mate with some of these
belugas to create what's called a nar luga.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
A nar luga. So are nar luga's actually a thing?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah, Apparently in the nineteen eighties, this Inuit hunter found
this distinct skull and he couldn't quite tell what it was,
so he gave it to a museum. Museums also couldn't
figure it out. It wasn't until twenty eighteen that DNA
testing showed that nar walls and belugas could actually mate
and have offspring. Anyway, it's unclear whether a baby narluga
will be sterile like a male lager or actually be
(17:44):
fertile like a female lagger, which is obviously a mix
of a line and a tiger. But for scientists it's
super exciting to watch the flirting and play and mating
rituals take place and to follow this Narwall in his journey.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
All right, well, if a nar Luga is born, I'm
sure the internet will be all over it. And speaking
of which, my last fact is about a rescue puppy
that was originally abandoned in the dead of winter in
Missouri and took the socials by storm. It was a
puppy born with a tail on its forehead, and it
was of course named Narwal.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I remember Narwal. He was like a real Internet celebrity
for a minute. I remember, like Zach Braf was tweeting
about him. But how is Narwhal doing?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Apparently doing just fine. Like when he was put up
for adoption, three hundred thousand applications came in to adopt him,
but he was also at risk. You know, some people
saw him as an abomination and came to the shelter
demanding that he be euthanized, which is of course just awful.
It's strange that people would feel that way. But after
protecting him vigilantly for a few months. The mom who
(18:47):
fostered him ultimately decided to keep him, and today he's
a rescue spokesdog for the shelter that took him in,
and everyone talks about his wonderful attitude. But the thing
I wanted to know about Narwal is how does a
mutation like that actually happen? Like how does a dog
end up growing a tail on its head?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I mean, the first thing I want to know is
can Narwal wag his second tail?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, yeah, that was my first question too, but unfortunately no,
he can't. But my second question was how he got
that little nub on his forehead And the answer is
that the vets don't really know. They think it was
some sort of rare genetic mutation that caused it, or
more likely, Narwal absorbed a twin from the womb and
that's what actually caused it. But everyone, in all the
(19:30):
interviews with Narwal's owners is clear about two things. One
he's doing great and two they have no intention of
removing his spare magical tail.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, I am glad to know Narwal is doing so
well and that Narwals generally are doing pretty well. So
what do you want to do about today's trophy?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I was thinking about this. I think I'm
gonna have to give this one to you. I mean
your narwal facts were pretty good, but that one about
the New School how they almost made a cigarette its mascot,
I mean that made my day.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
You imagine seeing that on like a basketball court, cig
around on the side cheering you on. Well, thank you
for that. I do want to let everyone know you
and I are trying to give the audience more part
Time Geniuses. That means more weekly episodes, bi weekly episodes,
and we do need a little help. If you like
the show, please consider rating and reviewing the show, sharing
(20:20):
it on social media with your friends, or hitting that
follow or subscribe button. All of it really helps us out.
And that's it for this week's episode from Will, Dylan, Mary,
and myself. Thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(20:46):
Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show
is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongagetikler and research
by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was
engineered and produced by Wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from
Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced for iHeart by
Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media support from
(21:09):
Sasha Gay trustee Dara Potts, and by any Shorey. For
more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what, Mengo, what's that?
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right, So I was doing a little research on
narwals this week, which is handy because the episode is
about narwals, and I think one of the reasons narwals
are so intriguing is that you actually can't find a
narwal at a zoo. Did you know this?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know? I never really thought about that, And it's
weird because you see all these other Arctic creatures like
whales and polar bears and things like that, So are
they an endangerous species?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
For the longest time, To be honest, I actually thought
that they were mythological creatures. I thought it was like
the unicorn of the sea, and so I thought maybe
that was why. But actually, there are tons of narwals
in the wild. The latest count is that they're about
one hundred and seventy thousand of them in the Arctic,
way more than I realized, which is a great thing.
And they're huge, like their bodies are eighteen feet long
(00:58):
and you can add another ten feet for their horn,
no joke.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
So that's like a twenty eight foot program height.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yes, yeah, which is impressive. But you know, because they
live a lot of their life under the ice and
in these really cold, dark regions of the water, we
don't really know a whole lot about them. But more importantly,
when you take them out of their homes, they just
don't do that well. So unlike porpoises or beluga whales,
which are close cousins and actually can do okay in aquariums,
(01:26):
narwals really react badly when they're in captivity.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So this has actually been tried before.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, there've only been a couple of attempts, at least
two that I am aware of. So there was one
in Coney Island. Of course, I think we had to
assume if there was going to be an effort, there
would be in Coney Island, and the narwhal was kept
with a beluga and fed milk and chopped up clams.
I'm not sure there was a great diet or a
lot of thought put into that. But then there was
another one in Vancouver where there were a bunch of
(01:53):
calves and an adult brought in. But in both cases
the acidity and carbon dioxide levels and the narwhals blow
fell and then their oxygen rises, so they can die
pretty quickly because of this. But actually, if you go
outside of captivity, they typically live to be fifty years old,
even reach ages of one hundred in some cases, which
is pretty awesome. Anyway, if you want to see a
(02:15):
real live narwhalet, there is only one way. You gotta
head north.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, I don't think I have any plans to get
to the Arctic and then your future, but why don't
we dive into the episode instead?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
That sounds great?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson, and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh hot Ticket and sitting behind that desk. And
it took me a while to realize what was going on.
I mean, though it was pretty obvious. Dylan is sitting
in an ice bath. I think he's just trying to
recreate the situation. He's dedicated. That's our good friend, producer, Dylan.
(03:11):
All Right, mego. So I am both very excited about
this week's episode because I knew nothing about narwals before
this week. But I'm also curious why are we doing
an episode on narwals again? Because I don't know if
there was something in the news or in the politics cycle.
There's a lot happening in politics right now. I don't
know if Narwals are involved, So what's going on here?
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah? I guess narwalls are related to whales, and there
was that strange RFK Junior story this week about his
obsession with that whales head. But that is not the
reason I chose Narwals. I wanted to do something on
them because my family went to Provincetown this summer, which
is gorgeous, and there was a museum there that had
this enormous Narwal tusk displayed in it, and I was
kind of enamored by it. The tussa really beautiful, like
(03:52):
ten feet long and spiraled and really elegant, and you
can't imagine them being attached to this like big doufacy cree.
But it made me realize I know nothing about narwals
like you, and I thought this would be a good opportunity.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Do for see that that's a pretty that's pretty low.
But I was definitely down to do this episode. So
where do you want to start?
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Well, why don't we start with a little primer on
these magnificent tuss and what they really are? So if
you look back at old drawings of narwalals, like the
ones that Vikings made, the initial drawings kind of look
like a unicorn's head transplanted onto a whale's body. But
over time sailors and then scientists realize that it isn't
some magical horn, but in fact a tooth. It turns
(04:35):
out the horn is actually a left canine tooth that
grows enormously long and mostly shows up in male.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Nor wallls, and it's just one tooth that grows like this.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Yeah, I mean you sort of see this happening in
other species, like fiddler crabs have that one claw that's
giant and it almost looks like a bicep. I love
when they're on the Jersey shore and they fist pumped. Ye,
it's amazing, but I guess favoring one side over the
other something that happens in nature. The other thing that's
funny about it is that narwals are considered a tooth
(05:05):
wail because of these tusks, but when you look inside
their mouths, they actually don't have any teeth in there.
It's almost like a newborn baby. And I'm going to
show you this photo because I think it's so weird.
It's kind of fuzzy and non threatening. And that's because
nar wals just swallow their food. They don't chew it.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
I can't even tell what I'm looking at. Yeah, it
looks like an animal in itself. But if they can't
eat with this tooth, what do they do with it?
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Like?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Is it a weapon to spear food? Or what's it for?
Speaker 1 (05:32):
The tusk has actually been perplexing scientists for centuries. Charles
Darwin thought it might be some sort of sexual characteristic
that attracted mates, kind of the way peacock's beautiful plumage
draws pea hens to it.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Actually, it's fun to think about Darwin analyzing narwals. I mean,
he really saw such a range of species.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Yeah, and it's amazing for such a shy and kind
of elusive Arctic creature to be that well known. But
also Darwin thought that maybe narwals use the tust to
oust one another, kind of the way bighorn sheep headbutt
for dominance.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So do nar walls joust for mates?
Speaker 1 (06:06):
No, so the males do rub their tusts against each other,
But apparently it's less about jousting and more about cleaning
the tusts, which get various parasites and waighale lice on it.
It's kind of a communal toothbrushing that they do.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So, if these big twisted canine teeth aren't weapons and
they can't chew food, why do Narwals have them?
Speaker 1 (06:28):
So, Harvard Marine Mammal Dental scientists, which currently is a
thing you have recently discovered that these tusts are actually
precise instruments for navigating the water. One scientist told Wired quote.
It takes a tremendous amount of energy and devotion to
get that thing to grow. To expend that much energy
in such a harsh environment, there has to be a
(06:50):
pretty compelling reason to do it, And it turns out
it's all about measuring the water salinity. Apparently, the teeth
are filled with a nerve rich pulp and this can
tell them whether the water is higher or lower concentrations
of salt, which to a Narwal means that either an
iceberg is melting or more importantly, an iceberg is forming,
(07:11):
so that the nar Wals don't get trapped under the ice.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Anyway, from what we understand right now, all this chemical
sensitivity in the tusk allows them to move through the
environment better.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Okay, no, that's interesting, all right, Well, since we're talking
about tusk, here's a quick fact that I saw. So
one of the stranger things about Narwal tusk is that
their tusk always spiral to the left, so counterclockwise. And
even in cases where nar Wals do have two tusks,
both teeth which protrude from the right and left sides
of the jaw, they spiral left.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
That's so weird. I guess if someone tries to sell
you a Narwal tooth that spiral is right, you know
it's a fake.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
It's really the best way to tell. That's always the
rule of thumb. And another interesting thing is that Narwals
are slow swimmers. You can actually walk faster than a
nar wall swims at three point eight miles per hour.
One thing that's delightful about them is that they often
swim on their backs because when they're feeding on the
ocean floor, they don't want to damage their tusk, which
(08:08):
makes sense. I've not really thought about that, So they
swim upside down. And one last thing about the tust
is that because they spend so much of their time
under the cover of ice or deep in the ocean floor.
Scientists haven't really been able to observe narwals eating, but
through analyzing the tust you can actually get that data.
So one scientist from McGill University put it quote, instead
(08:30):
of doing forty years of work to get forty years
of data in one year, you can get narwal tusk
and go back fifty years of time.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
That's really interesting. So has it taught has anything surprising?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Apparently Narwals used to eat more cod and haliban in
their diet, but as the Arctic ice has been melting,
they've changed their diets to eating more open ocean fish
like capalin, which are related to smelt. But narwals need
quite a bit of food to sustain themselves, so nearly
sixty six pounds of fish a day, or as one
blogger put it, the equivalent of two hundred and sixty
four filao fish. Pretty yummy, right, But the worry is that,
(09:05):
as Wired puts it, not all fish are created equal.
Arctic species are more nutritious energy wise, and to survive
the cold, fish need to pack on fat, which means
more calories for the predators that feed on them like narwals,
So Essentially, if the food they're eating is less nutritious
and less fatty, it might affect not only their energy
(09:27):
levels but also their migratory patterns.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So obviously, nar walls have become immensely popular in pop culture.
I feel like there are always these animals that surge
in popularity for little periods. There was a period where
everyone loved sloths, right when Kristen Bell was obsessed. Paris
Hilton made kinkajus a thing for a.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Bit, that's right. I think her pet was named was
it Baby Love?
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
Yeah, and she kept it until it bit her.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But it's a good time to decide.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Maybe not to keep a wild animal. Yeah. And then
of course you had like honey bat just went through
an Internet phase where you know, everyone was worried that
they didn't care much, and narwalls have sort of come
into this period as well, and they've benefited from this
Internet discovery. There are plushy narwalls for sale all over
the Internet. There are narwal horn candies that exist. But
(10:19):
one thing I was curious about was whether any colleges
or universities had picked up on this excitement and turned
the narwal into a mascot.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
That's a good question. So what did you find out?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, apparently it's been hiding under my nose all the time.
Right here in New York City at the New School.
They've made Narls the Narwal the mascot.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Such a good name too.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
And actually, Lizzie did her MFA at the New School
and I asked her, why didn't you tell me that
nar Wals were the mascot? And she was like, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Think you'd care.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Of course I care. Yeah, And they only created the
mascot in twenty twelve.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So why did they make the narwal the mascot instead
of like a bulldog or a blue devil for instance?
What made that decision?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
I mean, it is funny for a school that doesn't
have a giant sports program to even want a mascot,
But I guess that's where administrators saw this as an opportunity.
The school thought having a mascot would be a good
idea to draw the student population together, and so they
did a survey of what should be the school mascot,
and the Narwhal narrowly edged out a cigarette.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Okay, glad it was a close one.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Cigarette's a pretty funny mascot. Because it's so lit, as
the kids said. But luckily the narwal one and it
provided this unique opportunity to showcase that if you're a
unique and lovable weirdo, this is the school for you.
And they further refined that sales picture over the years.
According to an article in the New School Free Press,
this is in twenty twenty one, the university rebranded the
(11:42):
marine mascot from wearing a basketball jersey and being pretty
sporty to swapping it for a glasses wearing non binary
student with a Pisces sun sign to better reflect the
new school community. Now apparently, Narls is a dual major
BABFA and Environmental Studies and Communication design, and also, as
I mentioned before, is non binary and is possibly the
(12:04):
first mascot to use they them pronouns. All of this
puts them in like my top five mascots of all time,
with the trash Pandas, the Banana Slugs, the Delaware Blue Hens,
and of course the Philly fanatic. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I knew you're going to throw him in there, but
that's that's pretty great. Well, as long as we're doing
some of the sillier facts. As someone from Alabama, one
of The first things I wanted to know about narwal's
was how they taste, because they look like such fatty creatures,
and of course I want to know can you barbecue them?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I mean, I'm guessing a narwhal would be great for
a tailgate.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
But when you learn, well, the first thing is that
for people with our palette, you're probably more likely to
enjoy than narwal skin, which tastes weirdly like hazel nuts,
more than the meat.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
I mean, I'd be down for some narwal nutella right.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Well, the meat is another story, of course. For the Inuit,
narwal is a delicacy and it's really important, like the
flesh is full of vitamins and particularly vital and see,
so freezers are stocked with this stuff and it is
super popular. Any it can freely hunt narwal because the
population isn't at risk, though apparently it's tough work because
(13:11):
you know, once you've harpooned a narwal, they're like one
and a half tons and they sink fast, so you
really have to lug them in quickly. But in terms
of how the meat taste, you can either boil it
and serve it with soy sauce or chew it raw,
and according to a reporter from the Smithsonian who was
excited to try it, taste a little bit like rubber
(13:31):
and kind of like congealed gravy. So not the worst
taste exactly, but not exactly appetizing either.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, that's not a great sales pitch, right, So here's
a super quick one. I know, we talked about narwals
growing two tuss and I was curious how many of
the narwals actually do this. Apparently it's more frequent than
I was expecting. About one in five hundred male narwals
will grow a pair of tuss. The other question that
gets asked a lot is do female narwals grow tuss?
(13:59):
And the answer to that is also yes, about fifteen
percent of female narwals grow tuss, which just goes to
show you there's a lot of variation in nature.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
All right, Well, since you wanted to talk about the
tusk again, I don't know if you've noticed we keep
coming back to the touch. Let's talk about how narwals
are sometimes called the unicorn of the sea. So the
Latin name for narwals, Monodon monicros, means one tooth, one horn.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
It sounds like a like a rallying cry, let's go
to battle with one tooth.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
One tooth, one horn. You just kind of go. You
don't question it, you just say it loud, and then
you do whatever happens after that. But back in the
Middle Ages, every land animal was believed to have a
counterpart from the sea, and because people desperately wanted to
believe in unicorns, especially the Scottish people, where the unicorn
is still the national animal. As soon as this tust
(14:51):
whale was discovered, it was used to bolster the case
for unicorns. But it wasn't long before these tusts were
passed off as genuine unicorn horns. The tusk, as we mentioned,
are really beautiful in the way they're spiraled and long,
so Vikings and other traders could pass them off as
unicorn horns and sell them for ten times their weight
in gold. Now, of course, for buyers, just having a
(15:14):
unicorn horn and your cabinet of curiosities might be exciting,
but there was also a myth that unicorn horns could
neutralize poisons and cure depression several other things, so they
were often turned into cups for royalty and carved into
other supposedly magical items. In fact, one of the more
expensive narwald tusk was the one that Queen Elizabeth received
(15:35):
from an explorer of her court. The gift was bejeweled
and carved, and at the time it was worth ten
thousand pounds sterling, which, according to the site Majestic Whale Encounters,
which was the equivalent cost of a modest castle at
the time, or a little more than four million pounds today.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Oh wow, I like the idea of trading a horn
for a castle.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's pretty great. Yeah, it's just a modesele to me, exactly.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Well, I know we've got to throw to break, but
we'll be back with more.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Facts in just a minute.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Welcome back to Part time Genius. We're talking all things
narwal All right, Mango, what factor are you gonna end
with today?
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, one of the things you mentioned at the top
was that belugas and narwals are cousins. And there's actually
an interesting story that scientists have been following since twenty
sixteen when a pod of beluga whales adopted a stranded narwhale.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
So do narwals travel in pods? Too?
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, just like whales, they travel together. They travel in
groups of fifteen to twenty, and it's to keep them
safe from predators like killer whales, polar bears, and walruses.
So narwals are used to traveling in groups. But apparently
this adopted narwhal just turned twelve years old, which is
exciting because it means we can help throw bar mitzva
next year as long as it learns. You know, it's
(17:02):
half torah a portion, But actually entering its teens means
that the narwal goes from being a boy to man,
and scientists are excited about this because they want to
know whether the narwal will mate with some of these
belugas to create what's called a nar luga.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
A nar luga. So are nar luga's actually a thing?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah, Apparently in the nineteen eighties, this Inuit hunter found
this distinct skull and he couldn't quite tell what it was,
so he gave it to a museum. Museums also couldn't
figure it out. It wasn't until twenty eighteen that DNA
testing showed that nar walls and belugas could actually mate
and have offspring. Anyway, it's unclear whether a baby narluga
will be sterile like a male lager or actually be
(17:44):
fertile like a female lagger, which is obviously a mix
of a line and a tiger. But for scientists it's
super exciting to watch the flirting and play and mating
rituals take place and to follow this Narwall in his journey.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
All right, well, if a nar Luga is born, I'm
sure the internet will be all over it. And speaking
of which, my last fact is about a rescue puppy
that was originally abandoned in the dead of winter in
Missouri and took the socials by storm. It was a
puppy born with a tail on its forehead, and it
was of course named Narwal.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I remember Narwal. He was like a real Internet celebrity
for a minute. I remember, like Zach Braf was tweeting
about him. But how is Narwhal doing?
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Apparently doing just fine. Like when he was put up
for adoption, three hundred thousand applications came in to adopt him,
but he was also at risk. You know, some people
saw him as an abomination and came to the shelter
demanding that he be euthanized, which is of course just awful.
It's strange that people would feel that way. But after
protecting him vigilantly for a few months. The mom who
(18:47):
fostered him ultimately decided to keep him, and today he's
a rescue spokesdog for the shelter that took him in,
and everyone talks about his wonderful attitude. But the thing
I wanted to know about Narwal is how does a
mutation like that actually happen? Like how does a dog
end up growing a tail on its head?
Speaker 1 (19:04):
I mean, the first thing I want to know is
can Narwal wag his second tail?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Well, yeah, that was my first question too, but unfortunately no,
he can't. But my second question was how he got
that little nub on his forehead And the answer is
that the vets don't really know. They think it was
some sort of rare genetic mutation that caused it, or
more likely, Narwal absorbed a twin from the womb and
that's what actually caused it. But everyone, in all the
(19:30):
interviews with Narwal's owners is clear about two things. One
he's doing great and two they have no intention of
removing his spare magical tail.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, I am glad to know Narwal is doing so
well and that Narwals generally are doing pretty well. So
what do you want to do about today's trophy?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I was thinking about this. I think I'm
gonna have to give this one to you. I mean
your narwal facts were pretty good, but that one about
the New School how they almost made a cigarette its mascot,
I mean that made my day.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
You imagine seeing that on like a basketball court, cig
around on the side cheering you on. Well, thank you
for that. I do want to let everyone know you
and I are trying to give the audience more part
Time Geniuses. That means more weekly episodes, bi weekly episodes,
and we do need a little help. If you like
the show, please consider rating and reviewing the show, sharing
(20:20):
it on social media with your friends, or hitting that
follow or subscribe button. All of it really helps us out.
And that's it for this week's episode from Will, Dylan, Mary,
and myself. Thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(20:46):
Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show
is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongagetikler and research
by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was
engineered and produced by Wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from
Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced for iHeart by
Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry, with social media support from
(21:09):
Sasha Gay trustee Dara Potts, and by any Shorey. For
more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Host
Will and Mango
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