Instead, a narwhal tusk is a large, specialized canine tooth. It doesn’t have a hunting purpose, as narwhals typically swallow prey whole. Instead, it is thought to be a function of sexual ...

as little evidence implies that narwhals normally eat char, and they do most of the year’s hunting and dining in the winter, O’Corry-Crowe says. “There’s this tentativeness,” he explains.

The tusk, which is predominantly found in males and can grow up to 10 ... Narwhals may not be much good at hunting in summer, according to new research that warns the unicorn-tusked whales may be ...

The narwhal’s tusk was an inspiration for unicorn ... more aggressive uses of their tusks when they were observed hunting fish. And in fact, the arctic char also didn’t seem to always be ...

The footage captured 17 distinct behaviours, some never seen before - including the first-ever evidence of narwhals using their tusks to hunt. The whales were filmed striking Arctic char with ...

believe that narwhal tusks could get used to hunt fish. She notes that female narwhals, which usually don't have tusks, manage to find food just fine, so these tusks can't be essential.

And members of the research team like Cortney Watt, a scientist with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, as well as the University of Manitoba, believe that narwhal tusks could get used to hunt fish.

In response to these challenges, narwhals may dive deeper into the ocean to hunt for larger or denser schools of fish, making the trade-off for easier catches more worthwhile, O’Corry-Crowe said.