WEBVTT - Narwhals: Unicorns of the Sea 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:02.960 Hey, everyone, we're coming to Salt Lake City, Utah and Phoenix, 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.560 Arizona this fall. Yeah, October, we're going to be at 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:09.479 Salt Lake City's Grand Theater and then the next night 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.880 October will be in Phoenix. And we added a second 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.840 show to our Melbourne show, right, that's right, a second 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:19.239 earlier show in Melbourne. So you can get all the 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.119 information for all of these shows at s y s 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.599 K live dot com. Welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:35.800 from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:39.440 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant. 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:46.680 We're alone again naturally, but we're talking about in our walls. 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:50.680 So things aren't all that bad because they're pretty interesting. Yeah. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:55.000 I think I wanted to do this a long time ago. Uh, 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.960 and it just sort of fell off my radar and 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.640 then it popped back up on my radar. That is 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.560 a heck of a story, Chuck, and this was written. 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.720 I want to shout out former colleague Katie Lambert. And Katie, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:12.080 even though you do not listen, perhaps a friend of 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:18.119 yours might congratulations because Katie just got married. Oh hey, congratulations, Katie, 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.240 I'm married to uh it looks like a really good guy. 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.679 And uh they're now traveling and uh whish Katie all 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.480 the best. Yep, congratulations dudes, and thank you for writing 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:33.199 this article, which was seemingly intended for elementary school students. 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.760 Knew you get to say something. I was not going 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.200 to say anything. It's adorably written. Let's say that. Well, 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.800 if I remember correctly, she really liked nar walls, I 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:44.600 think so. I think she lobbied to write this one. 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:51.760 In fact, So nar walls is defined as follows. I'm 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.960 kidding nar waals wail with a horn pretty much actually, 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:59.440 and I there are a lot of similarities here between 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:02.200 walrus is, which we did in our walls, but they're 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.000 not They're not very closely related if at all. Am 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.600 I correct? Like walruses have nothing to do with whales, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.519 and then our wall is a type of whale and 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:17.160 much the same as like a beluga whale, right I believe. So, Yeah, 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.600 they're small, they're pretty fast, well comparatively small, I should 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:25.440 say pretty fast. Um, they live in extremely cold waters. 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:28.200 But the thing about the nar wall, the thing that 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.480 everybody knows about the nar wall, the thing that makes 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:35.040 the nar wall so unique, is that it has a tusk, 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:40.959 a unicorn horn basically that is frequently well over half 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.000 the length of its of its body. Yeah, I mean 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:45.880 some of those. So they can grow up to nine feet. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.880 That's crazy. Yeah, because a male narwhale gets up to 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.320 fifteen feet. So so you've got the fifteen feet of 0:02:52.360 --> 0:02:55.920 the small fast whale and then another nine ft of 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:02.160 unicorn tusk sticking out. And it's a pretty interesting appendage frankly. Yeah, 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.360 which you know, we'll save that for the third act. 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.519 You know what they say, you introduce a unicorn horn 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:10.680 in the first act, it has to kill somebody in 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.360 the third. Is that right? Well, that's the old saying 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.799 about a gun in a movie. Okay, if you see 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:19.440 a gun in the first act, it'll kill someone in 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.880 the third. I always thought things just appeared randomly in movies. 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.160 Is that not the case materialized? Yeah? No thought behind it, right, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.160 no reason, no rhyme. So the nar wall throughout history 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:37.800 has been a very um I guess, not misunderstood, but 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:42.040 fascinating to people because it just looks so strange. If 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.160 you've seen regular seafaring creatures, which already look a lot 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.040 of them look very strange, but imagine back in like 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.240 the Vikings days, when they see a nar wall stick 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:55.240 that thing out. It really would get people's attention, and 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.960 so it was written about in literature. Um at some 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.840 point that people thought that there was a land equivalent 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:07.400 equivalent to every marine animal, So like if there was 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:09.720 something at sea, there was a land version. Do you 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:12.200 remember we did like a Sea Monsters episode we talked 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.600 about that. Yeah. So the idea here is that that 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.360 there may be a unicorn, a horse unicorn, because there 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.320 was one in the sea. Yeah, and even if you 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:25.080 found the narwhal in the sea, it wouldn't just prove unicorns, 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:28.000 it would actually probably back it up. At the time, Yes, 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.599 so there was this widespread belief that there was such 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.560 a thing as unicorn. And then the fact that the 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.520 Vikings were going around trading with the the Inuit up 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:41.919 north around Greenland, um and getting narwhal tusks and bringing 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.279 them back and people were buying them as unicorn horns. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:48.440 It definitely it was like evidence like there you go, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.640 there's such thing as unicorns. We've never seen one, but 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.960 I've I got the tusk right here in my chalice 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.200 to counteract any poison somebody may have tried to give me. Right. 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:02.000 That was one of the things that was used for interesting. Yeah, 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.720 and let's see I got two more. You ready for these? 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:07.680 Hold your socks on because I'm about to knock them off. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:14.040 The Habsburg dynasty, their scepter had a narwhal tusk handle. 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:19.960 Ivan the terribles um staff, I guess he had a 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:25.480 walking stick made of narwhal tusk um. And if you 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.159 look on the Royal coat of Arms for pharmacists in 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.360 England you you will see a unicorn. All of those 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.800 are narwhal tusks or references to narwhal tusks. And how 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.239 magical they were thought at the time because people bought 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:47.560 and sold and used them as unicorn horns. Yeah. The 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:52.320 more you know, right, is half the battle. So let's 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.920 talk about this, this funny, fascinating creature. Uh. You'd want 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:01.960 to go to Canada perhaps to view them. Um, maybe Greenland, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.760 maybe small barred m Thro's some seeds in there while 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:10.359 you're at it. Uh, And they mainly try and navigate 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:16.760 what are called how do you pronounce that? Pollinia, pollinias, pollinias. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:22.520 I think so yes, I actually prefer that too. Pollinias, 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.000 which Katie described as the equivalent of an oasis. In 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.920 the Arctic, there these open water pools where otherwise there 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:33.200 is ice and there is a lot of good feeding. Uh. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.119 This it's like a buffet table in those things. Yeah, 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:39.800 because we're talking like little oayses in ice. And when 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.080 we say ice creaming ice forever and ever and ever, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.080 because nor Walls live in some of the coldest water 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:52.599 is imaginable on planet Earth. Um. So when one of 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:54.880 the in their whales, which means they have to breathe 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.440 air like we humans, right, Um, So they have to 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:00.720 travel from these things to these things, and they do 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:05.080 so under ice. So they basically just navigate poll nias 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:10.440 or poly nias um from place to place, follow their 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.000 food that way. Yeah. Another name that you might have 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.240 heard is corpse whale, and this came from there. The 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.760 adults have this kind of modeled black or dark gray 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.520 and white coloring and some people might say it looks 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:31.000 like like they're dead, right like liver or mortis. Do 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.800 you remember that where like you know this, the blood 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:37.520 just pools and collects at the body like in the 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.840 skin of the corpse. Yeah, so corpse whale is a 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:44.040 is a nickname. Uh kind of a not a very 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:47.160 nice one. Well no, actually, the word nar wall means 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.640 corpse whale in Dutch and Danish. Yeah, nar is like 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.600 the old Norse term for corpse and wall or vall 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:00.680 is whale corpse white, like nar waal literally means corpse 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:06.000 whale because up close they look like a dead body. Interesting, yeah, 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.080 and kind of gross. So they don't have a dorsal fin, 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.000 but they do have a dorsal ridge. A dorsal fin 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.640 would would be um. They may have had one at 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.720 one point, but it bumps into that ice, so now 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:19.640 it's a dorsal rit. Well, I say, now it might 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:23.920 have always been, but I'm just speculating. No, I think 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.520 you're right that natural selection might have taken care of that. Yeah, 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:28.880 because not only does it allow them to swim under 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.119 ice and follow their food, it keeps them from um 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.120 being attacked by orcas. Orcas have a full dorsal fin, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.240 so they can't get under ice or as close to 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:42.320 ice as or as um nar walls can, so they 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.520 can escape their predators and chase their food, which is 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:49.320 like two things that natural selection would definitely be all about. 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.000 All right, well, let's stay in by it then, Yeah, 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.520 I think you should. They hang out in groups UM 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.520 a lot of times, twenty to thirty, but when they 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:01.360 migrate there can be hundreds or even thousands of them together. 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.199 And the ladies are a little bit smaller, about pounds 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:10.880 and ten tott the dudes get up to about pounds 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.440 and up to fift Yeah, but I mean that's not small, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:18.000 but for a whale, that's not It's not big at all. 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.439 And they are fast, man, they're fast. And I also 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:26.480 read I read this really great article in Smithsonian. Um. 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.080 Let me see if I can find the name of 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:33.920 it um in search of the Mysterious Narwhal. And they 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:38.600 talk about this um, these two biologists who are dedicated 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.920 to like tracking and trapping and tagging and um pegging 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:47.800 up with right keeping up with nar walls to try 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.360 to estimate the population because no one has any idea 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:53.240 how many narwhals they are there are, and so you 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.880 don't know if they're dying off quickly or if there's 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:58.680 a lot more than we know. Who knows, um, but 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.240 it was they were talking about how hard it is 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.000 to capture these these whales to tag them, and how 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:07.120 hard it is even to hunt them too, because they're 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.560 so fast. They're fast, and they're real skittish, like they'll 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.880 take off at the drop of a hat. They're fast 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:19.280 and furious, too fast, too furious. Their tokyo drift. So 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:22.600 this is one of the interesting creatures that scientific whose 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.000 scientific name is all wrong. Um. The scientific name is 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:32.520 minodin mana serros, which means to one horn. Yes, and 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.120 if you're gonna come up with a cleric for your 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.400 D and D game, you could do worse than that 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.800 one horn. I like that monoddin mano serros. I take 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:49.840 your bag of plenty. Erry Lewis sounded. That's literally the 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.800 only thing I remember from like the two times I 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.960 play dn D take your bag of plenty, which you 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:56.840 probably can't even do. People are gonna say you can't 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.200 take a bag of plenty. Oh yeah, we'll get some 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.640 mail on that, But that's actually not true. One tooth 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.520 one horn is not true at all. They have no 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:08.679 horns and they have two teeth. That tusk, which we'll 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.079 talk about later again in the third act. That is 0:11:11.120 --> 0:11:14.839 a tooth. It is which we can't say anything more 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.160 about it apparently, but just believe us it's a tooth. 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:22.640 What it does eat? What do they eat. They eat cold, cold, 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.280 loving fish. Sounds pretty delicious to me. So these are 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.320 some of my favorite fish. Prepare for this cod salmon, 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.800 which I mean like it doesn't even have to be 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.880 dead yet, and I'll eat the salmon. God, harring have dude. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.760 Raw salmon is about as good as it gets. Yeah, 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.320 but you gotta bite into a live fish. Yes, I 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:50.600 would herring, which is great, especially pickled Halibit wonderful anyway. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:54.800 Shrimp and squid. Yeah, I'm not huge on squid these days, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:56.800 but all the other ones i'd be very happy with. 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:01.160 Weren't you big on squid because it's a squid and awesome, 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.840 I'm not. I'm just not big on squid. I don't 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:06.640 know the last time I had it, but I remember, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:08.920 I think I've just had too much rubbery squid is 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:15.080 what it is, you know, Yeah, I hear you. So 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.840 the problem is this, Chuck, Well, it's not really a problem. 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:19.480 It's a problem for you and me if we're trying 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:22.600 to track nar walls. But a lot of those fish, 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.480 especially depending on the season they um, live on the 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:30.400 bottom of the ocean, right, So that means that if 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:32.560 you are in our wall, you've got to get down 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:37.040 to those fish. And these things have actually been tracked 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:43.320 diving a mile down. Yeah, that's a long way, a 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:47.719 mile down. So some of the early trackers that they 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.640 put on these way these um nar whales. Before they 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.200 realize how deep they dove, the track the tracking device 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:58.160 would break. It just smashed under the pressure. But the 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.200 narwhall's just going down eating some cod and coming back 0:13:01.280 --> 0:13:03.360 up and then going down and eating some cod a 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:08.560 mile under the surface. Is just it's just it's crazy 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.240 to me. I'm I'm impressed by that. Yeah, And Katie 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.959 talked a lot about the diving patterns not being understood. 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.320 It sounds to me when reading through them, is that 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.160 they're uh like not random, but there there are so 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:24.480 many different reasons to dive, and depending on the time 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.040 of year and where the fish are. Like, I don't 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.560 know that there is a pattern. Well we yeah, we 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:33.040 just don't know yet. Yeah, exactly. So you want to 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.600 take a break, yes, all right, we're going to take 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.160 a break and when we come back, we're going to 0:13:39.280 --> 0:14:09.560 resume speaking about in our walls, all right, Chuck. So 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.960 you said, like there doesn't seem to be a pattern, 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.640 or we don't understand the pattern with diving. There's a 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:17.800 lot we don't understand about in our walls. But what's 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.840 interesting is that it seems like it might not just 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.400 be because we have so little access to them, because 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:28.920 they live in these extraordinarily remote climbs that are really 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:32.200 hard for humans to survive in. It's not just that, 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.320 it's that they are also supposedly very very smart as well, 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:41.320 like dolphin levels smart. Yeah, they um. They said that 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:45.920 they do some things that only apes do, like recognize 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:52.080 themselves in a mirror, and she said understand abstract ideas? Yes, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.720 what what does that mean? So the closest thing I 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:00.720 could see is that with understanding understanding abstract ideas, so 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:06.640 how we encapsulate two in the written number two and 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.600 that that that too is an abstract concept that doesn't 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:11.720 actually mean to but it does to us because we've 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:16.800 all agreed on it. Apparently, uh odonto sets, which is 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:20.040 the toothed whale that that they belong to, they've been 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:24.400 shown to understand abstract concepts like that they've been They've 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.480 been also found to be able to pass this stuff 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.080 along from one generation to the next, which means that 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:34.320 they have actual culture. Their culture survives, they have an 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.040 actual culture. It's not just their their genes driving them 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.440 to find more fish. Um, go have sex with that 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:45.320 other narwhal. Nothing like that. They're actually thinking and passing 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:47.600 on like the stuff and the tricks that they learned 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:52.120 to the younger generation. So they're exceedingly smart too. Yeah. 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.080 And odonto uh adonta seed that is a toothed whale 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:01.800 with danto I guess ing the tooth part right, like 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.720 ord is it a danta seat, I said, a dante 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.040 sette like machete. I think it's a danta seat, But yeah, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.560 you're probably gonna be wrong. Who knows. Uh. They echo locate, 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.040 which is interesting like bats do. So what they do 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.440 is they you know, it's very dark down there where 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.760 they swim a mile down and they still need to 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.240 find these fish, so they produced the sound. They don't 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.280 they don't have vocal cords like we do. Um. They 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:29.720 think although they don't know. Like you said, there's been 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.160 so little study because they're hard to catch and track 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.320 and trace. But they think they might make sounds to 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:41.560 their nasal passages and then focus that in uh in 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.400 there in this fatty structure called the melon, and then 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:48.160 beam it out and then of course it because echo location. 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.160 It travels as a sound wave bounces back after it 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:55.360 hits like a salmon um back to their skull. They 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.320 think the lower jaw are directly into the skull depending 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.840 on the frequency, and then they go to salmon. Let 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:06.320 me go spirit, yes, spirit, No they don't. They just 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:11.280 probably Yeah, they go after it with their mouths and 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.360 save it for me because I picture nine feet of 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.879 a big sushi. Right, But think about it, like if 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:21.840 they just spear salmon on the end of this thing, 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.160 they're like, oh, I hadn't thought this true. I can't 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:26.800 really actually get to this now. Let me scrape it 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:29.399 off on the ice and then hop up there with 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.159 my mouth and there you go. It seems like a 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.600 lot of problems, you know. Yeah, like they'd find it 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.399 dead normal with like twelve fish spirit. Right, it's like 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:42.080 the saddest thing ever. Um, So you talked about the 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.320 echo location. Did you say that that fatty deposits called 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:49.639 the melon? The melon? It's so weird, but it's pretty 0:17:50.119 --> 0:17:53.560 It's it's understandable that they would echo locate because they're 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.199 diving down into some some areas where there's like no 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:00.000 light whatsoever. But they think that in addition to um 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.280 finding food like salmon or whatever, they use echolocation for 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.960 communication to just basically simply to move through the water, 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.719 and either depending on the species or species are capable 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.920 of multiple frequencies. They if they are if they're trying 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:19.240 to reach something from a long distance, they'll use a 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:24.280 low wavelength echo. If they're trying to find something nearby, 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.640 they'll use a high frequency echo. Um. It's pretty interesting. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.040 And supposedly their brains started to grow from based on 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.639 the fossil record, around the time they would have started 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.440 to echolocate. That makes sense, Yeah, it does, because they're 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.520 getting that much more information and they need to handle 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.240 it process it. Hence they need a bigger brain. Supposedly 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:48.600 their brain is second only to ours in size relative 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:53.400 to body mass. Okay, relative to body mass, right, all right, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.080 that makes sense because when I first read that, that 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.440 makes total sense. So they think that they they don't 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.080 know how long they can live, but there are some 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.280 studies that indicate that they could live to be over 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.320 a hundred years old. There's one study um on the 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:13.400 eyes on nar while eyes, which is sort of sort 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.639 of a creepy way to figure this out, but a 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.520 hundred and fifteen years old, and they aren't sure how 0:19:19.560 --> 0:19:25.560 many there are UM, but in Baffin Bay apparently they 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.959 found over thirty thousand of them in Baffin Bay alone, 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.919 which sounds like a lot, but UM, when you look 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.600 at the scope of animal populations, it's not no and 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.040 they I mean they honestly have no idea. That's what 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:42.679 this UM, these marine biologists are doing is is trying 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.200 to figure out how many there are so that they 0:19:46.200 --> 0:19:49.440 can say, well, this is how many you should hunt UM. 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.120 This is the maximum number that should be hunted a year. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.440 Because there are UM and we'll talk about it later, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.359 but there are there is legal narwhal hunting UM. But 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:01.680 it's it's the from the work of these people who 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:04.560 are who are trying to track them to make sure 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:10.040 that the population that we're not inadvertently ruining this population UM. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:11.959 That's one of the main reasons that they're doing, in 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:14.879 addition to like just studying them. And they found a 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.120 lot of stuff out already, like they mate, remember those 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.920 poll nias. I mean, another way to put it is 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:26.280 their cracks in extensive sea ice, right and that's where 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.760 they mate. Another way put it is their sex pools 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:35.080 they are, there's sex pools polynia's um and so they'll 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.440 mate in there, but they'll also frequently die in there 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:43.440 too because there those the areas that they inhabit are 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:47.480 so cold chuck, so like negative sixty degrees fahret height 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:50.879 in some areas right that that's the wind temperature of 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:55.520 the surface, So it is really cold um that that 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.240 ice will form quickly. And if you're a norwhale and 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.680 you get stuck in the your toast, you're dead. Or 0:21:02.760 --> 0:21:06.600 if the ice these pollinia's ice over and there's not 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.719 another one nearby, again, you're dead because you have to breathe, 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:12.879 so you can't. You're gonna drown before you make it 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.639 to the next pollinia. So they actually live in a 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:20.760 really dangerous like right on the edge of survivability in 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:23.840 a lot of ways. And they think that they are 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:28.600 very genetically um homogeneous, and they think that the reason 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:32.800 why is that back in yes, basically, which is surprising 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:36.080 for how smart they are, but they they think they're 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:38.520 genetically homogeneous, and they think the reason why is that 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:42.840 there were multiple die offs of narwhal's getting trapped in 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:46.920 these frozen over pollinias, so much so that it had 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:50.159 like a major impact on the diversity of their population, 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:52.879 and they faced an evolutionary bottle knick at one point, 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:56.040 and then once the ice agended, they started to expand again, 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.520 but they were a little dim as a result. That 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:04.000 should be a new t shirt. I'm not in bred, 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:11.480 I'm genetically homogeneous. Right, nice? Oh? Uh? Should we take 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:15.360 another break? Sure? Let's man, because I think if I'm 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:17.280 not mistaken, we're going to come back and talk about 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.200 the tusk. Right. The tusk in Act three is going 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:50.920 to kill somebody? Will it be you? All right? Josh? 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:53.359 Everyone has been speared by a tusk. It was me. 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:56.800 I'm gonna have to carry on alone for the next 0:22:56.800 --> 0:23:01.040 ten years. It's really just a flesh wound. No, no, no, 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:06.200 you're you're dead, feel betta. Uh. So Katie makes a 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.840 point to talk about human teeth for a second. We 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:11.720 won't go down that rabbit hole too much, um, except 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:14.720 to say that human teeth are hard on the outside 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:19.560 to protect the soft pulp and nerves and blood on 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.840 the inside. Uh. And that is very important distinction, because 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:26.520 the narwhale is the opposite of that. Which is really interesting, 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:30.520 was that a rabbit hole with the teeth. No, not 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.640 not Chuck's version. Okay, Oh, I see what you're saying, 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:37.600 because I think you did a great job. Thanks, But yeah, 0:23:37.640 --> 0:23:39.840 you set it up perfectly, Chucked. The normal has the 0:23:39.960 --> 0:23:43.879 opposite of that, like this sensitive part is on the 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:46.080 outside and the hard part is on the inside, which 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:50.080 is insane. Yeah, it's really interesting. There are ten million 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:55.040 tiny little holes on the surface of that tusk. Uh. 0:23:55.240 --> 0:23:57.560 And even though human teeth have these same holes are 0:23:57.600 --> 0:24:01.320 covered with enamel. But there are different theories on why 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.960 the tusk would need to be sensitive, and they sound 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.440 pretty good to me, Like that it's a sensor, Yeah, 0:24:08.480 --> 0:24:12.919 that that basically it's it's detecting things like salinity, water, 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:18.240 temperature currents, maybe sure um or it might be able 0:24:18.280 --> 0:24:24.040 to um to detect atmospheric pressure above or barometric pressure 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:28.280 above the water, see where the weather is changing. There's 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:30.800 all sorts of things that that it could be or 0:24:30.800 --> 0:24:35.080 it could do, and maybe it does multiple things. However, uh. 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:38.760 Katie points out rightfully that very few females have these 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.159 tusks at all. So if it's how important could it 0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:45.520 be to their survival? If if most of the females 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.800 don't even have them, right, so that led Darwin, and 0:24:48.840 --> 0:24:52.800 apparently his his hypothesis is still the most widely held one, 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:57.760 that it's a secondary sex characteristic, like um, like moose 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.520 antlers or something like that, like or how dear male 0:25:01.600 --> 0:25:04.600 deer have horns, like check out the size of my tusk, 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:07.520 ladies that. But also it's like, hey, I'm a dude, 0:25:08.080 --> 0:25:10.119 you don't have these. You're a lady kind of thing, right, 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:12.119 Why would the females have them at all? Then? I 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:15.280 don't know that's the weird thing, because something like of 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:20.000 female normalls have these tusks. Yeah, I mean, some people 0:25:20.040 --> 0:25:22.280