Narwhals

[Drinkandknowthings]

Playing a ‘name an animal, fish or bird’ game with DDs and DH and I said Narwhal. DH said that we agreed nothing imaginary so I had to break it to my 39 year old educated husband that Narwhals are in fact real. Also having to google anteaters for DD.

I’m sure I’ve seen this mentioned before on MN. Anyone else surprised by the things people do/don’t believe in.

I had to explain to my husband and various relatives that narwhals are real, it was 1st April and I’m sure they still don’t believe me. All these people are degree educated, well travelled etc

At 16 more than one of the girls in my friendship group thought Reindeer were imaginary.

10 year old me had to tell her cousins aged 16 - 20 that narwhals were real when playing a game like scattergories or something. This was in the days before Google, so we had to look it up in an encyclopedia.

I was very pleased to be proved correct.

Won't someone please think of the narwhals. Daily Mail sadface

I only found out narwhals were real a couple of months ago.
(40)

I've met several people who didn't believe/know they are real. Some have only found out as their kids have learnt about them at school.

As a child in the 60s I remember a museum that had a collection of narwhal tusks. We thought narwhal was just another name for the unicorn not realising that unicorns were mythical. I still remember the awe I felt looking at those tusks.

Yes I too was one of those who didn't realise narwhals were real until a few months ago. I am still a bit shocked.

I've seen them in the wild so can confirm they are most certainly real.

I was absolutely convinced for a ridiculously long time that Albatrosses were extinct. Think i was mid-20s before it clicked

Im 42 and I still forget if its dinosaurs or dragons which are the real ones

@IHaveBrilloHair that gave me much needed smile.

My school mum friend was amazed that lemmings were real

Ooh yes Windywuss that’s just reminded me I used to think lemmings weren’t real

In fairness, they bear absolutely zero resemblance to their digital game counterparts!

A friend (this was in 6th form) thought bats were fictional. When we explained they were real she was terrified that people were vampires... so had to explain to her the difference between fictional vampires and real bats. It was challenging. She also thought bears lived in the woods in Scotland (we were camping and she was worried about a bear breaking into her tent). She was very academic too.

A friend of mine is terrified of ducks/swans/geese but he was comfortable with the fact that they couldn’t fly

He just about shit himself when I said actually yes they do fly...and pointed out a flying duck.

He sat near a river once and a swan family came near. I have honestly never seen a man run away so fast. I nearly wet myself laughing

I had to convince my mother that narwhals were real. She thought they were made up for Octonauts.

As a toddler my DD mixed up kangaroos and reindeer. We aren't 100 percent sure how it happened. Nursery were as mystified as we were. I was quite sad the Christmas she was 5 and she finally got it right.

Id never even heard of narwhals until dd got her lost my name book. So I was 36!

I love this thread

I quite like the idea of kangaroos pulling Santa's sleigh.

Duck Billed Platypus creep me out .

Egg laying mammals ....... just why ?

Don’t forget the echidna 70s

They are an egg laying mammal too

My mum once casually mentioned to our elderly neighbour that she'd been watching a documentary about wolves. He replied, 'Don't be ridiculous, there's no such thing as wolves'.

My Sister thought I was winding her up about Narwharls being real, only last year, she is 31.

We have also had discussions on if a Platypus can make their own custard from their own eggs and milk, whether Koala finger prints can be mistaken for human ones and if Pandas deserve to be extinct. Last week it was if there were Beavers in the wild in the UK?!?

We are not getting out much at the moment & love an animal factoid.

I though Narwhals only existed in Elf, the movie. It was only when I saw one in a museum in Newcastle did I realise they were real. DH took great delight in mocking me for it. I must have been late 30/early 40
when I found this out.

I didn’t know that narwhals were real until the recent terrorist attack at Fishmongers Hall, and the attacker was fought back with a narwhal tusk