Polar bears have been hunted since the tribes of primitive hunters penetrated into the polar latitudes thousands of years ago. Images of a polar bear have been found among rock carvings dating back 3,000 to 1,500 years ago. A statuette of a polar bear made from a walrus tusk was also discovered during excavations of an ancient human settlement at Cape Baranova, east of the mouth of the Kolyma.
Polar bear hunting. An engraving of the 19th century.
Bear hunting has always been a traditional occupation of the Eskimos of Arctic America and Greenland. The first indications of it were found by archaeologists back in the “Dorset” culture — from the 8th century BC to the 13th century AD. However, this hunting has always been of secondary importance; the main thing was the extraction of seals, whales or caribou deer. However, it was conducted regularly and played a certain ritual role.
Besides, killing a bear meant asserting one’s dignity as a male hunter. Before the advent of firearms, the Eskimos hunted the bear with a knife and a harpoon. They tirelessly pursued the beast, sometimes for several days; they were helped by trained dogs. The hunters said that the most difficult thing was to find the beast. It was not for nothing that tradition gave the skin to the first person to see it.
In addition to its magical significance, the polar bear was of significant material value to the northern peoples. Its meat and fat were used as food and for sled dog food, and shoes and clothes were sewn from the skins. Warm winter trousers made of bear fur were especially appreciated; they are still worn in the north of Greenland. The Eskimos tied a piece of skin — “alamast” — to their shoes in order to walk silently on the ice while hunting.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, the shores of the Barents Sea began to be inhabited by Russian people, and from that time on, polar bear skins began to reach Novgorod, and then Moscow. It is noteworthy that these brave travelers called themselves “ushkuiniki” from the word “ushkui” — a polar bear. Since the 15th century, the Russian Pomors began fishing trips to Svalbard and Novaya Zemlya, where they hunted walruses, seals, polar bears, deer and arctic foxes.
Intensive and widespread polar bear hunting began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when numerous St. John’s wort hunters, whalers, fur traders, and then polar expeditions rushed north. Especially many expeditions went to the Arctic in the 19th century. Their goals were different: scientific research, the search for a “northwest” or “northeast passage” from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, reaching the pole.
Polar bears served as a source of fresh meat for travelers, as a “reserve food supply” in case of severe wintering and often helped polar explorers, saving them from starvation. In most cases, however, people killed all the bears they encountered, regardless of the need and opportunity to preserve the meat.
Signs of a decrease in the number of bears appeared as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was probably from the thirties that a critical period began in the life of the species. Reproduction no longer had time to “compensate” for the death, and the number of polar bears began to decrease rapidly. In the fifties, their fishing from hunting vessels ceased, but this did not save the situation.
In 1956, polar bear hunting was completely banned in the Soviet Union. However, neither this measure nor hunting legislation in other countries could restore the number of animals. The question arose about the need to prevent the threat of extinction of the polar bear from the face of the Earth, a threat that has become quite real due to human fault.
Based on the materials of Kischinsky Alexander Alexandrovich
