The Tusk: Male narwhals have a very long, hollow, spiral tooth that grows from the upper left jaw. The tusk is about 10 ft (3 m) long. Tusking is a behavior in which male narwhals rub their tusks together - perhaps determining dominance in the group.

Anatomy: Narwhals can grow to be about 16 feet (4.5 m) long (not counting the tooth), and weigh about 1.8 tons (1.6 tonnes).

Hunting and Diet: Narwhals eat fish, squid , shrimp, and other marine animals. They feed near the sea floor, deep under the pack ice of the Arctic.

Migration: Narwhals winter in deep-water beneath ice pack in groups of 5-10 animals; in summer they migrate to shallow, ice-free summer grounds where they congregate in larger groups.

Name: Narwhal means "corpse whale" in Old Norse; this is perhaps a description of their skin, which is bluish-gray with white blotches (young narwhals are brown). The scientific name of the narwhal is Monodon monoceros (meaning "one-tooth one-horn" in Greek). In medieval times, narwhal tusks that washed ashore were thought to be from the mythical unicorn.

Questions:
1. What does narwhal mean in the Old Norse language? ______________________________

2. What color is an adult narwhal's skin? _____________________________________________

3. Like other whales, the specialized tail of the narwhal is called the __________________________.

4. The long projection in the front of the narwhal is not a horn. What is it? ______________________

5. Narwhals are found near which pole? ________________________________________________

6. An adult narwhal (body plus tusk) is about as long as how many 5-foot-tall sixth graders? _______________

7. An adult narwhal is about as heavy as a bicycle, a person, a car, or a jumbo jet? _____________

8. Like other whales, the narwhal breathes through a _________________________________.

9. Narwhal tusks used to be confused with the horn of what mythical animal? ____________________