1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:07,440 --> 00:00:10,640 Speaker 1: Lauren vogel Bomb Here, take a second to think about 3 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: a nar wall. It's a whale with a unicorn horn 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: of fairy tale animal, right, so it may come as 5 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:19,280 Speaker 1: no surprise that this improbable animal of the North Seas 6 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:24,360 Speaker 1: has actual superpowers. The nar wall's spiraled horn isn't just decorative. 7 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,440 Speaker 1: It's actually a modified tooth that can grow the lengths 8 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 1: of up to nine feet that's about three meters. These 9 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:34,640 Speaker 1: tusks contain around ten million nerve endings. Some nar walls 10 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 1: have two tusks, while others have none, and they use 11 00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:40,280 Speaker 1: them for a variety of purposes, like testing the chemical 12 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: concentrations in seawater. The males use their tusks to advertise 13 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:46,760 Speaker 1: the size of their testicles to females, and it would 14 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:48,479 Speaker 1: be a shame if they didn't fight using them like 15 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: fencing foils, which don't worry, they totally do. But a 16 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: study published in the journal p l Os one finds 17 00:00:55,680 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: the nar wall in possession of the most powerful directional 18 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: sonar of any animal on earth. Because, of course, lots 19 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: of marine mammals use echolocation to find their way around 20 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: in the ocean's murky depths, but disability to use sonar 21 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 1: to determine where objects are in space is especially crucial 22 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:15,559 Speaker 1: for narwhals. They're deep divers and just one of two 23 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: species of toothed whales who live year round in the 24 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 1: Arctic Circle off the coast of Canada. In Greenland, the 25 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,600 Speaker 1: seas are most often completely covered in ice, and our 26 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: whales live in complete darkness for much of the year. 27 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: Since nar wall has to come up to the surface 28 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:31,160 Speaker 1: of the water for air every five minutes or so, 29 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,039 Speaker 1: they have to be able to precisely and quickly detect 30 00:01:34,120 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: small holes and cracks in the ice through which to 31 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 1: grab quick gulps of air. Dr Kristen Laughter, an ecologist 32 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: at the University of Washington, told The New York Times. 33 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:45,920 Speaker 1: You don't see open water for miles and miles, and 34 00:01:45,959 --> 00:01:48,360 Speaker 1: suddenly there's a small crack and you'll see our walls 35 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: in it. I've always wondered, how do these animals navigate 36 00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:53,920 Speaker 1: under that, and how do they find these small openings 37 00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: to breathe. To find out, she and her research team 38 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,880 Speaker 1: placed microphones under the water around ice packs in bath 39 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: in Bay Thu's off the southern coast of Greenland and 40 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 1: happens to be where of the world narwhal's spend their winter. 41 00:02:06,120 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: The team then listened for the telltale sound of echolocating clicks. 42 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: They discovered that not only do nar whales produce them 43 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:14,960 Speaker 1: at a rate of up to one thousand clicks per 44 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: second and receive the echoes back on pads and their 45 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,200 Speaker 1: lower jaws, they can also direct them with incredible accuracy, 46 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,680 Speaker 1: like the narrow beam of an adjustable flashlight. According to 47 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: the researchers, it's the most precise directional beam of all 48 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:33,359 Speaker 1: animal echolocators. Other whales broadcast their echolocating sounds in all directions, 49 00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:36,360 Speaker 1: which is useful for receiving data back from great distances, 50 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,119 Speaker 1: and it turns out narwhals can do that too. Other 51 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,040 Speaker 1: animals like bats also use echolocation, but the narwhal's ability 52 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: to focus its clicks bests them all. When narwhal's track prey, 53 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: the study shows they can widen the sonar beam to 54 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: take in a larger area. In this way, they can 55 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:54,919 Speaker 1: get a sense of their surroundings with more accuracy than 56 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: any other echolocating animal on the planet. Let this be 57 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:01,400 Speaker 1: a lesson to us all that just because an animal 58 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:10,240 Speaker 1: seems mythologically amazing. That doesn't mean that it isn't. Today's 59 00:03:10,240 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tristan McNeil. 60 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:16,240 Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other superpowered topics, 61 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:29,760 Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com