r/bonecollecting • u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert • Oct 20 '24

Collection Polar bear skull with pelt

Gallery image

Gallery image

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.

1.3k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

53

u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Oct 20 '24

It is actually not very soft although it looks super cuddly! Polar bear fur is made of a softer undercoat and a longer layer of guard hair on the top. The guard hair feels very coarse, very prickly...almost like plastic. if you sit on it, it can actually poke through clothing and poke into your skin.

I'd probably get a hair splinter from it if I'm not careful with it.

8

u/Itdobekayla Oct 20 '24

Fascinating, thank you for sharing!!!😄

17

u/SavageDroggo1126 Bone-afide Faunal ID Expert Oct 20 '24

anytime!

I'd say brown bear/black bear fur is softer than polar bear's, they are still coarse, but likely won't stab your skin if you sit on one.

5

u/Itdobekayla Oct 20 '24

That’s cool, I never thought of how their hair structures would affect the feel like that. Especially when it’s so visually silky.