Happy Unicorn Day but narwhals are cooler and actually exist
Unicorns pranced all over Twitter Sunday as users celebrated an imaginary holiday for an imaginary creature. But some Twitter folk weren't in the mood for make-believe.
After all, who needs unicorns when majestic, spear-headed animals actually exist?
Case in point: the narwhal. The Arctic whale's spiral tusk can grow to more than nine feet long. It's also extremely sensitive, with up to 10 million nerve endings inside. Just watch:
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There's more horned creatures worth mentioning. If narwhals are the "unicorns of the sea," then rhinos are "chubby unicorns," at least according to the internet and a surprising number of T-shirt vendors.
Rhinos, however, have bigger problems than sizeism. Sadly, their horns are so valuable on the black market that poachers recently broke into a French zoo to kill a 4-year-old rhino and saw off its horn.
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That's not to say narwhals and rhinos don't have their own arbitrary days in the spotlight. Monday, after all, is the (conspicuously timed) Narwhal Day. And every Sept. 22 is World Rhino Day.
Given the dubious state of unicorns' existence in the realm of mortals, National Unicorn Day is meant as more of a cultural celebration and not so much for wildlife awareness campaign.
Unicorns are Scotland's official national animal, and they first appeared on an early form of the Scottish coat of arms in the 12th century. The horned horses also appear in tapestries and designs of historic buildings across the country.
Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.
