Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Sexual Behavior of the Narwhal


Hi everyone, my name is Deanna and I am one of the sexy scientists. For my first blog post, I thought it was important to connect our blog title with a topic I found interesting. With that said, I decided to talk about the sexual behoviors of the narwhal. I chose the narwhal due to my love of the movie "Elf" and because the narwhal is a facinating creature. So to start, for those of you who do not know, a narwhal is a toothed whale that lives in the Artic ocean (close to the north pole; where Santa lives). But these creatures are easily identifiable due to their long, straight, spiral tusk protruding from the upper jaw.
The function of this spear-like projection is not clearly understood, however some theories include that it is used by males to determine social rank. It may also be a seconday sexual characteristic much like the feathers of a peacock, the horns of a goat, or facial hair on men. These characteristics are important when it come down to finding a mate. And apparently, for the male narwhal, the larger the tusk, the more likely he will win the battle over the right to a female. And the female narwhal does not want just ANY male. According to the "sexy son hypothesis" proposed by Weatherhead and Robertson (1979), the female's optimum choice among potential mates is a male whose genes will produce male offspring with the best chance of reproductive success (as does any woman).

4 comments:

  1. There is an another possible function for the tusk that is really interesting. Check out http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/science/13narw.html

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  2. That is pretty interesting (both your post and the link).

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  3. This is a really interesting, informative, and unique post. It's really easy to understand and has a good sense of humor.

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  4. I really liked your post. It was very informative and I loved that you talked about the narwhals. I had never heard of one until I saw a video on youtube titled, "Narwhals" that is actually pretty funny and catchy. Since then I have seen them being used in shows. I'm glad you posted this!

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