re partie de l’année, c’est au printemps que le dynamisme de ses caractéristiques physiques et biologiques est le plus notable. Ceci est particulièrement évident à l’interface rapide de la glace et des eaux dégagées, nommément la lisière des banquises, où le changement physique rapide dans la condition de la glace est fréquent et où les mammifères marins et les oiseaux migrateurs estivaux sont présents en grand nombre. Dans cet article, une analyse de 14 voyages observés indique que l’utilisation par les Inuit de la lisière des banquises au printemps pour chasser le narval, comparativement aux autres types de chasse, suit un mode de chasse à l’affût (sit-and-wait). Cette étude expose les aspects du savoir écologique traditionnel appartenant aux Inuit de Pond Inlet, nécessaire pour voyager et conduire les opérations de chasse avec succès dans cet environnement complexe.
Corps de l’article
Research on Inuit hunting of narwhals (Monodon monoceros; Inuktitut: qilalugaq) in the floe-edge environment has been limited both in number of studies and depth of analysis (e.g., Bissett 1968; Degerbøl and Freuchen 1935; Mary-Rousselière 1984). For example, most data on Inuit-narwhal interaction consists only of a few numbers in harvest tables (see Baffin Regional Inuit Association 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985; Donaldson 1988). Clearly, there is a general paucity of analytical literature on Inuit cetacean hunting, despite the acknowledged ethnographic and current importance of narwhal to Inuit (notable exceptions are Dahl 1990, 2000 and Smith 1991).
Nevertheless, the actual use of narwhals by Inuit has not gone completely unremarked. Both anthropological and biological literatures have explored the culture of the hunt (Mathiassen 1928), the animal’s dietary importance (Bissett 1968; Treude 1977) and its socioeconomic value (Land 1977; Mary-Rousselière 1984; Matthiasson 1992; Reeves 1992). With reference to the actual hunt, Finley and others (Finley et al. 1980; Finley and Miller 1982; Roberge et al. 1990; Weaver and Walker 1988) have investigated harvesting technologies while Remnant and Thomas (1992), Thomsen (1993) and Stewart et al. (1995) have investigated features of the traditional ecological knowledge of modern narwhal hunting. As much as these works contribute to our understanding of the Inuit and narwhal relationship, none provide a comprehensive analysis of contemporary narwhal hunting behaviour.
The main objective of this paper is to redress this gap by employing a behavioural ecology approach to study the Inuit floe-edge narwhal hunt. An analysis of Inuit hunting strategies is critical to understand the organization and pattern of Inuit hunting behaviour with respect to the prey species and the environment. In the present study, we specifically focus on one of the most important components of the Inuit narwhal hunt during the spring floe-edge season: the foraging or search phase (see Table 1). We believe this stage to be crucial for the overall foraging cycle as it is time-consuming, precarious and is most influential in the successful capture of a narwhal.
A second objective is to examine whether the foraging mode currently used at the floe-edge to hunt narwhal in the spring is specific to this species and environment or represents a widespread strategy. Hunting processes for other species such as caribou hunting, winter breathing hole sealing, and spring basking seal hunting will be compared to narwhal hunting to present the variation in foraging mode. Winter and spring sealing represent two harvest activities that might be considered to “compete” with whaling at this season. Finally, it is important to mention that no comparison will be made here between floe-edge and open-water narwhal modes of foraging as this is the subject of a future paper (Lee, in preparation).
Next, we review the relationship between Pond Inlet Inuit and narwhals to illustrate the contemporary pattern and importance of Inuit narwhal harvesting. We will also review the human behavioural ecology framework as it will be the basis of our present analysis of