Nanuk, the Inuktitut word for polar bear, is an iconic animal, capturing public imaginations and starring in international marketing campaigns. As nanuk has increasingly been used as the poster species for climate change, it has also become separated in the popular imagination from the peoples and communities of the North.
Yet nanuk is a cultural keystone species that provides a sense of identity, spiritual connections, food, livelihoods and cultural continuity throughout Inuit homelands. Polar bears and Inuit continue to share the same lands, waters and ice. They regularly interact on the land during a harvest, and in communities, where nanuk can become a safety issue. This relationship is a part of life in the North and Inuit carry generations of knowledge and science about polar bears.
