[HN Gopher] Drone captures narwhals using their tusks to explore...
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       Drone captures narwhals using their tusks to explore, forage and
       play
        
       Author : dnetesn
       Score  : 34 points
       Date   : 2025-02-28 10:31 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (phys.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (phys.org)
        
       | Boldened15 wrote:
       | That's cute. Also just reading the first part "Drone captures
       | narwhals using their tusks..." my mind jumped to a more sinister
       | interpretation, poachers using drones to spot and hunt narwhals
       | by recognizing tusks with AI... I've clearly been reading too
       | many AI headlines recently.
        
       | comrade1234 wrote:
       | In Vienna you can see a narwhal tusk that was sold to the emperor
       | as a unicorn's horn. I'd love to know the story - probably a dead
       | narwhal washed up in a beach, someone took the horn, then how
       | many hands it passed through before making it to the Austrian
       | empire, and who actually believed it was from a unicorn?
        
         | ForTheKidz wrote:
         | Without knowing what a narwhal is, such a horn might make a
         | compelling case for the existence of unicorns in the first
         | place. The other tusks and horns I can think of aren't nearly
         | as straight and it's easy to imagine emanating from the
         | symmetry line of an animal.
         | 
         | IIRC though the knowledge of the existence of a narwhal would
         | likely have penetrated to vienna by then, so I bet some people
         | correctly identified it.
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | I'm getting an image in my head of young narwhals fencing like
       | Errol Flynn, and it makes me realize why they were such a 2010s
       | meme animal.
        
       | 4ugSWklu wrote:
       | Did it catch them baconing? If so, at what time?
       | 
       | (ng deg [?]? deg)ng
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | Context:
         | 
         | > "The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight" is a catchphrase that was
         | created for Redditors to identify themselves in public places.
         | It is used in fanart, rage comics, and is often referenced as
         | an inside joke in Reddit threads.
         | 
         | Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-narwhal-bacons-at-
         | midnigh... (mildly not safe for work, like all knowyourmeme
         | articles).
        
       | trebligdivad wrote:
       | 'The tusk, especially the tip of the tusk, was used to
       | interrogate and manipulate the target by brief contact, which
       | typically elicited a response from the fish.' Well, yes, if you
       | were poked by one of those tusks you'd react!
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-01 23:00 UTC)