Both the beluga, with its white skin and gentle smile, and the narwhal, with its spiraling tusk, look like creatures straight out of legends. It’s therefore not surprising that the union of these two marine mammals, unheard of until recently, brought about some seemingly magical being: the narluga.
Recent DNA analysis of the skull of an unusual-looking whale caught in Greenland in the 1980s (one of three killed by a subsistence hunter) has led researchers to the conclusion that hybrids between narwhals and beluga whales can exist. The three whales had flippers like belugas, tails like narwhals, grey skin, and a skull larger than typical belugas and narwhals.
