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Unicorn Alive!

© Rina Abdul Jamal

The story goes back to the middle ages when crafty traders somehow got hold of some long, twisted horns and sold them off as the horns from a great mystical animal, the unicorn. The spiritual and holiness touch behind the odd-looking somewhat interesting piece had the medieval royalty excited enough to fork out outrageous amounts of money to get their hands on one.

The great mystical animal is a legend, the horn is real but it is not worn by a white horse with wings instead, by an animal which belongs to the family Monodontidae, the genus Monodon and the species monoceros or also called narwhal. This animal does not gallop on land or fly in the sky but this toothed whale swims in the sea. To be specific, narwhals can be found around the Arctic and the North Atlantic oceans and migrate seasonally as the ice edge moves.

The single, long, spiraling horn or tusk is usually possessed by male narwhals but there are a few instances of females which usually have none, having one as well, only shorter. Narwhals have only two teeth in the upper jaw and the spiraling tusk is actually one of them. The left tooth will pierce through the lip and while growing, will spiral straight forward. Occasionally, an individual will develop two tusks but both will be usually relatively short.

There have been a few theories regarding what narwhal actually uses the tusk for. The tusk, which is rather brittle, can grow up to 3 m (10 feet) and is supposed to be used as a sparring weapon or for display. It has been observed that some male narwhals have scars probably due to a duel to get access to females. The males have been seen having their tusks partially broken off or with tusks embedded to their bodies but still, this does not mean that the tusk is used only as a weapon since spearing among male narwhals is somewhat less common.

Adult Narwhals are mottled gray in colour. Including the tusk, the overall body length of an older male narwhal can reach about 8 m (26 feet) and weigh about 1.8 tons. The physical characteristics of a narwhal are similar to its close relative, the beluga whale. It has cylindrical body, blunt head, highly flexible neck and no dorsal fins but instead, replaced with a long, low dorsal hump. This animal also has a thick layer of blubber suitable for living in an extremely cold surrounding.

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