A unicorn in the south seas

 The mysterious narwhal of the Antarctic sea

    Narwhals are curious animals, due to their physiognomy and rarity, being elusive and shy creatures that can only be seen in the wild and never in a zoo.

Currently the only known species live in the seas of the northern Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean and it is common to see them near Greenland and northern Canada, But it is possible that another species exists or has existed, according to evidence during the centuries of exploration, a species living in the Antarctic Ocean, let's analyze it in depth.

The South Sea Narwhal

      This is a creature that they described as an animal similar to a narwhal, bluish in color, with a high fin and an ivory tusk approximately 30 to 60 cm long, It measures approximately 3 meters long, inhabiting the Atlantic waters of the southern Antarctic Ocean.

This was sighted during the 17th century and in the 19th century, with 3 quite significant sightings, these being the following:

The first and most significant occurred on October 5, 1615, at the hands of the Dutch explorer Willem Corneliszoon Schouten, who noted in his diary that one of his ships was later rammed by a supposed sea monster in the middle of the Atlantic, The crew found a 30 cm long horn nailed to the bow, this being a smooth horn but similar to that of the narwhal, this one eventually disappeared but it is suspected that it could have been donated to a museum.

The second occurred on February 3, 1620, when Grand Admiral Augustin de Beaulieu observed an animal similar to a dark blue porpoise with a tall fin and a tusk about 1 to 2 feet long in the South Atlantic Ocean off South Africa, We shouldn't count it as such but strangely it was always in the direction of the South Atlantic.

The third occurred on December 17, 1892, the crew of the ship Balaena, while exploring Antarctica, saw an animal similar to a narwhal in the Bransfield Strait, off Antarctic Peninsula.

After this last sighting he has not been seen again, Theories abound, some people claim that this creature did not really exist and is just a confusion of identity with swordfish, due to the aforementioned horn factor which some say resembles in description that of swordfish, although this is unlikely, Others think that it is just a whale with malformations or a tumor, but this theory is not widely accepted, although there is also a theory that it could have been a new variety of narwhal that would have lived in Antarctic waters until not long ago.

We know that narwhals only inhabit the northern hemisphere, but it would not be surprising if there had been some species with a distribution in the south, We know that there were relatives of narwhals in those areas, so it would not be unreasonable to think that maybe and just maybe, there was a variety of narwhals living in that area, But today, unfortunately they are extinct, let's hope one day the horn of this species will be found and this creature that everyone forgot can be brought to light.

[Reading links]

https://cryptoresponse.weebly.com/antarctic-narwhal.html