Footage Shows How Narwhals Use Tusks To Hunt And Play

In a story from March, researchers used drones to study the mysterious arctic animals and learn new things about narwhal behavior.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:17Ira Flatow?

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• 0:34Flora Lichtman?

  Hey, I'm Flora Lichtman, and you're listening to Science Friday.

• 0:40Flora Lichtman?

  Today on the show, let's say you're a sea mammal born with a 10-foot tusk sticking out of the front of your head. What would you use it for?

• 0:48Speaker 03

  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.

• 1:03Flora Lichtman?

  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.

• 1:47Flora Lichtman?

  On the horn to tell us more is Dr. Greg O'Corry-Crow, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, based in Boca Raton, Florida. Greg, welcome to Science Friday.

• 1:57Speaker 03

  Thank you for having me.

• 1:59Flora Lichtman?

  Okay, are narwhals mysterious?

• 2:02Speaker 03

  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.

• 2:30Flora Lichtman?

  Well, what did you learn about them?

• 2:32Speaker 03

  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.

• 3:07Flora Lichtman?

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

• 3:10Speaker 03

  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 use their tusks in a way we never really knew about.

• 3:51Flora Lichtman?

  What are they doing with those tusks? Tell us.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  So basically, the general understanding is, you know, 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 this kind of surgical instrument to catch prey.

• 4:20Flora Lichtman?

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

• 4:22Speaker 03

  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.

• 4:53Flora Lichtman?

  Like a cat toying with a mouse?

• 4:54Speaker 03

  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?

• 5:24Flora Lichtman?

  I've had enough.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  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.

• 5:42Flora Lichtman?

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

• 5:47Speaker 03

  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.

• 6:13Flora Lichtman?

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

• 6:16Speaker 03

  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 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 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.

• 7:01Speaker 03

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

• 7:08Flora Lichtman?

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

• 7:15Speaker 03

  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?

• 7:59Flora 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.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  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, right beside a narwhal, and you're just mesmerized by the beauty of it as well, because it has this beautiful scrolled 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.

• 8:47Flora Lichtman?

  What are they made of?

• 8:49Speaker 03

  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.

• 9:16Flora Lichtman?

  Really? Like an antenna or something?

• 9:20Speaker 03

  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.

• 9:44Flora Lichtman?

  Yeah, especially when it's 10 feet long.

• 9:47Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 9:47Flora Lichtman?

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

• 9:49Speaker 03

  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?

• 10:07Flora 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?

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Well, a very good point. And I think a lot of the impetus behind this work was,

• 10:22Speaker 03

  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 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.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  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 a natural history.

• 11:22Flora Lichtman?

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

• 11:31Speaker 03

  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.

• 11:49Flora Lichtman?

  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 narwhals unlocking expert level for marine biology?

• 12:03Speaker 03

  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.

• 12:49Flora Lichtman?

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

• 12:54Speaker 03

  Thank you. Thank you very much.

• 12:55Flora Lichtman?

  Dr. Greg O'Corry-Crow is a research professor at Florida Atlantic University, based in Boca Raton, Florida.

• 13:07Flora Lichtman?

  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 Dee Peterschmidt. I'm Flora Lichtman. Thanks for listening.