Narwhal: Revealing an Arctic Legend

Winner of the William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books (2018)

Few animals on the planet inspire the sense of wonder evoked by the narwhal. The Arctic unicorn' is everyone's version of awesome and cool. Explorers, aristocrats, artists and scientists celebrate this elusive whale and its extraordinary tusk. From Flemish unicorn tapestries, Inuit legends and traditional knowledge, and the research of devoted scientists, comes a tale of discovery reported here from the top of the world, a place where climate change is rapidly transforming one of the harshest environments on earth. How did the narwhal tusk become the horn of the fabled unicorn? What treasures do the Inuit hold about this majestic but elusive denizen? What have scientists discovered about the function of its tusk?

Explore with whale biologists as they capture live narwhals to answer questions of narwhal biology, migration, population and behavior. Ponder the evolutionary history of the narwhal through paleontology and genetic science. Contemplate the fate of northern regions, animals, and peoples in a rapidly warming Arctic. Experience the insights and observations of Inuit hunters who have lived with the narwhal for thousands of years. The following pages present their views along with the latest research in narwhal biology, art, and climate science illustrated by more than a dozen photographers and graphic artists.

Table of Contents

Preface
A World of Questions
PART 1: THE NARWHAL WORLD
What is a Whale?
The Universally Beloved Unicorn
PART 2: TOOTH TO TAIL
Narwhal Biology: An Overview
Listening to Narwhals
The Physics of Flukes
The Extraordinary Narwhal Tooth
Whale in the Net!
Making Sense of the Tusk
Narwhal DNA
Why Sequence Whole Genomes?
The Narwhal Genome Initiative: A Progress Report
Deep Time: The Narwhal and Beluga Fossil Record
Narwhals and Climate
PART 3: NARWHAL AND INUIT
Qaujimajatuqangit: Inuit Knowledge and Modern Life
Nunavut Government Symbol
Inuit and Narwhal
Inuit contributions to Narwhal Knowledge
PART 4: THE NARWHAL FUTURE
Climate and the Changing Arctic
Narwhals and the Global Mercury Issue
As Goes the Arctic...
Narwhal: An Uncertain Future
The Last Ice Area
Arctic Change, Resource Extraction, and Inuit Communities in Nunavut
Drowning the Noise
Rethinking Human Development
Now is the Time
Out of the Arctic, Into the Smithsonian: Making the Narwhal Exhibition
Contributors
Acknowledgments
References
Index
Credits