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RE: When narwhals (Monodon monoceros) rub their tusks together, it is believed to be to share information about the water, not as a sign of aggressive rivalry
As I previously mentioned that your posts motivate me to do more googling my self..
So look what I found while searching for Narwhal tusks
About one in 500 male narwals can grow double tusks.
Amazing and beautiful...
I am afraid that they are not being hunted by humans for their tusks, like elephants for the ivory....
It's really cool that they sometimes develop two horns. But I guess it makes sense, since they are based on the canine teeth, which we all got two of :)
Yeah, they are being hunted by humans for both food and their horns. @fromgreenland commented earlier with his experience, and said a nice horn could be sold for $3-4,000+. So they are worth a lot!
But luckily there appears to be a healthy population, so I don't think we need to worry about them just yet. Luckily they are very difficult to hunt ;)
$3,000 is a lot, but that's nothing compared to what Queen Elizabeth paid for one. The sources vary on the amount, but it's said she spent about £10,000 for a jewel encrusted horn which she used as a sceptre and which many believed came from a unicorn and could detect poison.
If that sounds like a lot, keep in mind, that's £10,000 in the 16th century. That amount was enough to buy a small castle and when adjusted to today's values is somewhere between 3 and 7 million USD.
I came across this story during my research as well, and it's really interesting to see how valuable they were at that time. I guess they really believed them to come from unicorns!
Did you come across the hypothesis that the norse traders knew exactly where they came from, but encouraged the mythology
(and closely guarded the secret) to make more money when selling horns?
No, I didn't. But that's really cool! Totally sounds like something the norse traders would do though, and it makes for a really cool story.
A way of fooling the rich one's indeed...
Rich people often think that buying unique mystic things will make them look more noble and posses good taste...
That's true. And it's a huge problem for many of the species who are being hunted and killed for this industry.