Narwhals are among the most specialized and climate-vulnerable cetaceans, with their uniquely adapted Arctic lifestyle increasingly disrupted by warming.
Narwhals caught in sea ice entrapments during unusual freeze events suffocate slowly — a welfare crisis that climate change is making more frequent as unpredictable ice conditions trap migrating groups. The extreme fright response to boat noise and helicopter surveys causes cardiac arrest in some individuals, making research itself a welfare concern requiring careful methodology. Noise from Arctic shipping, which is increasing as sea ice retreats, disrupts the acoustic environment essential to narwhal social communication and navigation. The species is a striking example of an animal whose highly specialized adaptations make it particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic disruption.