How Narwhals Use Their Tusks To Hunt And Play | This Week's ‘Blood Moon’ Lunar Eclipse

An international team of researchers used drones to study narwhals and learn more about their behavior. And, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North and South America in the early morning hours of March 14.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  WNYC is supported by Bear. Science is about asking questions, testing, trying again. It's not easy, but it's relentless. It evolves, and that's why science delivers. Learn more at sciencedelivers.com.

• 0:18Flora Lichtman?

  This is Science Friday. I'm Flora Lichtman. Today in the podcast, a mysterious creature with a tooth longer than your body.

• 0:26Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. No, it's incredible. I mean, they can grow to 10 feet in length, and they really are a remarkable structure.

• 0:36Flora Lichtman?

  We are taking a polar plunge into the science of sea 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 learned all these new things about this storied creature. On the horn to tell us more is Dr. Greg O'Corry-Crowe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, based in Boca Raton, Florida. Greg, welcome to Science Friday.

• 1:21Speaker 02

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:22Flora Lichtman?

  OK, are narwhals mysterious?

• 1:26Speaker 02

  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've partnered with indigenous communities in the far north to set out and learn more about this incredible animal.

• 1:54Flora Lichtman?

  Well, what did you learn about them?

• 1:56Speaker 02

  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.

• 2:30Flora Lichtman?

  Well, let's dive into some of those interactions. What are they doing?

• 2:34Speaker 02

  So in the summer, the general understanding is they've 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 they get up to some pretty interesting behaviors. And one of them we got to see was how they actually use their tusks in a way we we never really knew about.

• 3:14Flora Lichtman?

  What are they doing with those tusks? Tell us.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  So basically, the the general understanding is, you know, these tusks have evolved as 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 this kind of surgical instrument to catch prey.

• 3:43Flora Lichtman?

  To spear them? Or what are they doing with them?

• 3:45Speaker 02

  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.

• 4:16Flora Lichtman?

  Like a cat toying with a mouse?

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Yes, it was like play with your food, you know. And so. This is the first sort of documented example of narwhals, you know, 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 the fish would stop as if to say, what are you guys doing?

• 4:48Flora Lichtman?

  I've had enough.

• 4:49Speaker 02

  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.

• 5:06Flora Lichtman?

  Like one narwhal is is doing something with their tusk and then the other one copies it?

• 5:10Speaker 02

  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 behaviours 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.

• 5:36Flora Lichtman?

  Hmm, I mean, isn't this the basis of culture, passing down ideas?

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Ah, 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 and other primates, including beluga whales. And the crux of that is passing down traditional behaviours 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 by tradition. And if something changes, you know, are you going to be actually able to respond? And so in the Arctic, you know, our our 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.

• 6:25Speaker 02

  And social learning is key to both of those things. And that's really what we're up there trying to understand.

• 6:31Flora Lichtman?

  Hmm. How are narwhals adapting to climate driven changes in the Arctic? Are they threatened? Is it harming them?

• 6:38Speaker 02

  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 on narwhal. 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?

• 7:22Flora Lichtman?

  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/tusk. Highly recommend. A big aha for us was how long these tusks are.

• 7:38Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. No, it's incredible. I mean, they can grow to 10 feet in length. And they really are a remarkable structure. And when you're sort of standing in the water, you know, right beside an narwhal, and you're just mesmerized by the beauty of it as well, because it has this beautiful scrawled 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.

• 8:11Flora Lichtman?

  What are they made of?

• 8:12Speaker 02

  They are a tooth. So basically, they're a very specialized tooth that 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 an environmental probe.

• 8:39Flora Lichtman?

  Really? Like an antenna or something?

• 8:43Speaker 02

  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 was really incredible.

• 9:07Flora Lichtman?

  Yeah, especially when it's 10 feet long.

• 9:10Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 9:10Flora Lichtman?

  Like I can barely hold a fork, you know what I mean?

• 9:13Speaker 02

  True, yeah, I mean, and it's a heavy object as well. So we want to continue this research, we want to go back and learn more. But 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?

• 9:30Flora Lichtman?

  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?

• 9:40Speaker 02

  Well, a very good point. And I think a lot of the impetus behind this work was, could we use methods that were 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 and get hands on animals, could we take a step back? And that 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.

• 10:25Speaker 02

  And we were able to, without disturbing these animals, just sort of become kind of part of their environment. And all these 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 this, what I call notebook and pencil kind of natural history.

• 10:45Flora Lichtman?

  That's fascinating that this, you know, very new technology actually allows us to go, you know, back to tried and true methods of observational science.

• 10:54Speaker 02

  Yes, and I think, you know, technology over the last thirty, forty 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.

• 11:11Flora Lichtman?

  You know, I think a lot of people at one time in their life, myself included, have dreamed of being a marine biologist.

• 11:19Flora Lichtman?

  Is studying narwhals like unlocking expert level for marine biology?

• 11:26Speaker 02

  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, 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.

• 12:11Flora Lichtman?

  Thank you for taking us into the wilderness today. It's very refreshing.

• 12:15Speaker 02

  Thank you, thank you very much. And we hope to be able to continue this work and maybe give you some more exciting news in the future.

• 12:24Flora Lichtman?

  Anytime, please, anytime. Dr. Greg O'Corry Crowe is a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, based in Boca Raton, Florida.

• 12:36Flora Lichtman?

  After the break, mark your calendars, it is a total eclipse of the moon.

• 12:41Speaker 03

  Once it's in totality, when it's all the way into the shadow of the earth, that's when it turns that eerie reddish, orangish colors and gives it the nickname the blood moon.

• 12:56Speaker 00

  Science Friday is supported by PBS, presenting Going Wild. If you love learning about the natural world and meeting the scientists who help us understand it, be sure to check out the new season of Going Wild with Dr. Ray Wynn Grant. It's the chart-topping and Webby Award-winning podcast from the folks at Nature on PBS, now with a video companion series. In this season of Going Wild, host acclaimed wildlife ecologist Dr. Ray Wynn Grant heads out into the field to explore the animals, people, and stories that make nature worth saving. Stops include a hibernating black bear den in Arkansas and an underwater shipwreck site off the Florida coast. If you're looking for a place to start, check out the season's debut episode, where Ray joins beloved biologist and influencer Jordan King in the Florida Everglades to learn about

• 13:41Speaker 00

  his unlikely journey into science and how to study a wetland when it's not very, well, wet. So don't miss out. Follow Going Wild with Dr. Ray Wynn Grant on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. WNYC is supported by Bear. Every day in America, science delivers, not just in the headlines, but in the moments that matter most. Science is a journey, one of curiosity, persistence, and progress. It's about asking questions, testing, learning, and improving again and again. Science delivers harvests that feed families, tools that help farmers grow more with less, and new ways to protect land for generations to come.

• 14:22Speaker 00

  Let's keep asking, keep testing, keep discovering, so science can keep delivering. Learn more at sciencedelivers.com.

• 14:29Speaker 04

  Support for Science Friday comes from the Heising Simons Foundation. Unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities. More at hsfoundation.org.

• 14:43Flora Lichtman?

  On the horizon is a total lunar eclipse. Here to tell us more is astronomer Dean Regus, host of the Looking Up podcast. Welcome back, Dean.

• 14:52Speaker 03

  Glad to be here.

• 14:53Flora Lichtman?

  When is this total lunar eclipse happening?

• 14:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's a little confusion about that because it's technically on March 14th, but it's really the night of the 13th into the early morning hours of the 14th. And best of all, it's going to be visible from all across the country.

• 15:10Flora Lichtman?

  So next Thursday, Thursday night.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  Basically, yeah, so either you gotta stay up all night past midnight or uh set an alarm and get up a little bit earlier, but uh the whole thing kicks off at about 1:09 a.m. Eastern time, and that's when the shadow of the earth at first appears on the moon. And then it slowly eats away the light on the moon as the shadow sweeps across. And then, once it's in totality, when it's all the way into the shadow of the earth, that's when it turns that eerie reddish orangish colors and gives it the nickname the blood moon.

• 15:45Flora Lichtman?

  The blood moon. I love the lingo around eclipses. What does it look like exactly during totality?

• 15:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, totality, it doesn't disappear. The moon is still visible. That's because light is still getting to the moon. It's just bending through the earth's atmosphere. So when you have this lunar eclipse happen, uh you have the sun on one side, the moon on the other side, and the earth directly in between the two. So the sunlight will be mostly blocked by the earth, but a little bit of it kind of bends through the earth's atmosphere and that's what projects onto the moon, giving it that weird little reddish color.

• 16:22Flora Lichtman?

  So I saw the, the total solar eclipse and it was an amazing experience. And I remember other people having these really ecstatic experiences. Does a total lunar eclipse deliver in the same way?

• 16:40Speaker 03

  Well, for me it does, but I'm a little strange. This is uh going to be my 22nd lunar eclipse that I've seen. And each one is really memorable to me. But uh for me, there's two main parts of a lunar eclipse that get me excited at least, and that is number one, the beginning. So right when the earth's shadow appears on the surface of the moon, that's the part I really like. So it's like the kickoff. This thing's really happening. Uh and then the other part is totality. And so when we're in totality, that's gonna be about 2:26 a.m. to 3:31 a.m. Eastern.

• 17:13Speaker 03

  And that one is just more kind of a, you kind of sit back and relax and watch it. And what's so fascinating is the colors on the surface of the moon change every couple of seconds. And so you look at it once, it has a different color. You look at it again, it slowly morphs. So yeah, I mean, I'm going to be cheering and howling and everything, but it's definitely less exciting, dramatic as a total solar eclipse.

• 17:37Flora Lichtman?

  Your neighbors are going to call the police.

• 17:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, well, they're, they're used to me being up late at night.

• 17:42Flora Lichtman?

  They know you.

• 17:43Speaker 03

  Looking through telescopes, yeah.

• 17:44Flora Lichtman?

  Can people everywhere see it? Hawaii, Alaska? You know, we have listeners everywhere.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  It's going to be visible from coast to coast. So the mainland US, Canada, pretty much all of the Western Hemisphere will be able to see this. In Hawaii, you're going to just miss the beginning of it, but you'll have plenty of time to see totality. And same with Alaska. So everybody from coast to coast in all 50 states, you'll be able to see totality.

• 18:08Flora Lichtman?

  All right, everybody, mark your calendars for the total lunar eclipse, late March 13th, you know, slash very, very early March 14th. Thank you, Dean.

• 18:18Speaker 03

  Hey, my pleasure. Keep looking up.

• 18:20Flora Lichtman?

  Dean Rigas is an astronomer and host of the Looking Up Podcast, and he's based in Cincinnati.

• 18:30Flora Lichtman?

  And that is about all we have time for. Lots of folks helped make this show happen, including.

• 18:36Speaker 05

  Santiago Flores.

• 18:37Speaker 04

  Rasha Ridi.

• 18:38Speaker 06

  Phyllis Samars.

• 18:39Speaker 07

  Robin Kazmer.

• 18:41Flora Lichtman?

  I'm Flora Lichtman. Thanks for listening.