Narwhals are among the most vulnerable Arctic marine mammals to climate change, with their dependence on sea ice habitat and specialized diet making them poorly adapted to rapidly warming conditions.
Narwhal welfare is being degraded on multiple fronts simultaneously as climate change transforms the Arctic. Reduced sea ice means reduced protection from orca predation, increased human disturbance from shipping and resource extraction, and shifts in prey distribution that require longer foraging distances. The paradoxical stress response of narwhals — cardiac freeze combined with vigorous swimming — when disturbed suggests their stress physiology is poorly matched to increasing human encounter frequency. Climate mitigation is the only long-term solution, but in the interim, protecting narwhal habitat from additional anthropogenic disturbance is an achievable welfare measure.