Next to tardigrades and red panda, Narwhals are one of my favorite creatures:
The narwhal is an elusive, mysterious resident of the remote Arctic. The species, a relatively small whale adapted for extreme icy environments, is known for growing a characteristic spiral tusk that resembles the historical portrayal of a unicorn’s horn.
The name “narwhal” comes from the Norse words “nar” (corpse) and “hval” (whale). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the name refers to the whale’s dappled gray skin, which to sailors resembled that of a drowned person.
Narwhals are an important subsistence resource for Inuit people, a culturally related group of indigenous peoples in Greenland, Canada and Alaska. In Inuktitut, the language used by the Inuit people, there are many words for narwhals that specify size, color and whether they have tusks, as described by the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic (ELOKA). The name for the whole species, ELOKA found in interviews with Inuit community members, is “qilalugaq qernertaq,” which means “one that is good at curving itself toward the sky.”
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And, just because I love you all…