Narwhal tusks were entered into the sale at a London auction house last week and were expected to make up to £10,000 each before they were withdrawn. Animal conservationists were alerted of the items, and pressed the house to take them off the auction. The narwhal is a tusked whale of the northern seas, and has become increasingly hunted due to the demand of its ivory.

Although the sale of elephant ivory tusks has been banned, the sale of the narwhal tusk is not illegal as yet. Conservationists are warning however that if the trade were to continue, the narwhal would become on he endangered list within five years.  The high amounts of money that people are paying for the narwhal tusks are increasing the demand for the tusks, and hence the killing of these beautiful beasts.

Tags: animal, auction, demand, endanger, ivory, narwhal, north, sea, tusk, whale

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Conservation, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.