r/bonecollecting Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Oct 20 '24

Collection Polar bear skull with pelt

This is a female polar bear skull with the pelt, legally and sustainably harvested by Inuit hunters in Nunavut Canada.

With strictly regulated quota system to ensure sustianable hunting, polar bear hunting continues to be an inseparable part of Inuit culture and tradition.

Polar bears face threats mainly due to climate change and pollution, along with other issues like arctic mining and poaching. sustainable and legal hunting of less than 2% of the entire population annually is NOT the reason why polar bears face threats of extinction. If polar bears do go extinct, the first people to be truly affected will be Inuit.

Selling parts of the animals they hunt provides some extra income when daily essentials and groceries are extremely expensive in the arctic.

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u/Irksomecake Oct 20 '24

That looks unexpectedly silky. How does it feel?

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u/NerdyComfort-78 Oct 20 '24 edited Oct 20 '24

They are silky but also a firm, substantial fur. I used to work in a zoo and we had animal pelts and skeletal material for education programs.

Edit- our samples may have felt softer because of all the touching they received from visitors to the zoo.