Historically, narwhals have not come into contact with much human disturbance, because they live mainly hidden among Arctic sea ice. But in recent decades, as the ice has declined, this is changing.

is facing the prospect that the ice will retreat for good. Maybe the narwhals eluded their pursuers. Or maybe they were never there and are still lingering in their summer grounds up north ...

These medium-size whales have stubby pectoral flippers and lack a dorsal fin, which allows them to swim underneath ice floes and access the surface for air; adults narwhals’ white coloring with gray ...

Narwhals mingle in Lancaster Sound, off Baffin Island. They winter in ice-covered waters, feeding on halibut. The corkscrew tusk, a canine that grows up to nine feet long, may serve to impress ...

During their two-week August expeditions, Nweeia and his team camp out on the shores of ice-free inlets, where the researchers know they will encounter narwhals. They cast nets a couple hundred feet ...

Inuit hunters have observed these whales breaking ice over half a meter thick—ice strong enough to support a fully-loaded semi truck. The living ranges of the narwhal whales overlap with those of the ...

The year Gnarls was born, data from NASA's GRACE satellites revealed that ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland were beginning to lose substantial mass. By the time Gnarls was 12 years old, the ...

Other theories are that male narwhals might use their tusks as a kind of pick to break through or break up channels in the ice, or that the size of the tusk is a visual indicator used by females for ...

The Arctic is a majestic world, home to wildlife rarely seen further south: bowhead whales, polar bears, narwhals and walruses. Life thrives on and under a legendary blanket of snow and ice ...

The Bell Museum premiered a new exhibit, “Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend,” in October in addition to celebrating its 150-year anniversary. The Bell Museum was founded by the Minnesota Legislature ...

Other theories suggest the tusk is a sensory organ able to detect changes in the environment; an aid to navigation in pack ice; a weapon for doing battle with other narwhals and predators ...