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You are here: Home / History / How did the Inuit hunt their prey and What types of animals did the Inuit hunt?

How did the Inuit hunt their prey and What types of animals did the Inuit hunt?

April 15, 2020 by Karen Hill

Each animal required a different hunting technique.

To hunt caribou, for instance, hunters set up two rows of scarecrow-like figures made of snow. Making as much noise as they could, women and children chased a herd into the area between the scarecrows, which led to a corral or a lake, where hunters waited to spear the frightened animals.

When hunting seals, Inuit hunters looked for clusters of small holes in the ice. These were breathing holes made by seals, who lived below the ice throughout the winter. A seal hunter hunkered by these holes, sometimes for hours, waiting for a seal to approach. When an animal appeared, the hunter stabbed it to death with a harpoon.

Whaling usually involved a team of hunters. Led by an expert whale hunter called a umialik, about ten men would paddle a boat into the ocean. When they saw a whale, they paddled toward it and shot at it with their harpoons.

Pulling on the harpoons, they then dragged the huge animal closer and finished the kill with smaller lances.

Related Facts

  • What types of houses did the Inuit live in and Did all Inuit live in igloos?
  • How do modern Inuit hunt for food and are the natives of the Arctic and Subarctic still hunters?
  • How did the Inuit Learn how to hunt seals from the Polar Bear?
  • How did the Inuit survive in the Arctic and What character traits did Inuit society value?
  • How did the Inuit spend the long winter and What did the Inuit do indoors when it was cold outside?
  • Who are the Inuit and Where did the Inuit come from?

Filed Under: History

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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