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By Tris Perkins, World Culture Educator and Curator, and
William Ripley, Curator of Natural Science
People and animals that live in the arctic and subarctic regions of the earth face some pretty EXTREME conditions. You can learn all about life in the iciest parts of the world when Polar Bears to Penguins opens at The Children’s Museum October 9.
The Inuit people who live in the northernmost regions near the Arctic are experts in surviving in the frozen lands, but they have to be resourceful. When it comes to getting around in the icy tundra 
the Inuit people historically used stone monuments like these to help navigate their world. Called inuksuit (singular: inukshuk, ee-nook-shook), these large sculptures of carefully stacked stones can be seen in remote, snow-covered areas of Alaska, Canada and Greenland where few landmarks exist. Inuit people started building them hundreds of years ago to serve as messengers for travelers. Each inukshuk had a different name and shape and was created to help direct people to things like good hunting and fishing grounds, the best place to cross a river, the safest path by which to travel and places where special people and events were to be remembered.
Inuit people continue to recognize and respect the inuksuit their ancestors built. However, today, most Inuit people use current technologies such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and satellite communication to navigate their increasingly modern world.
The Inuit people share their environment with many kinds of animals who are also naturally built to endure the EXTREME conditions.
The walrus is a resident of the Arctic Ocean and can sometimes be found in the sub Arctic areas. These flippered mammals can grow up to 4,400 pounds, and their most distinguishing feature, their tusks, can grow to be three feet long. It was thought at one time the tusks were used for finding food, but now it’s known they are used for display, fighting, and in a pinch helping get onto part of their habitat-ice flows.
These large animals survive on tiny animals like shrimp, crabs, and tube worms, but their favorite meal is clams, with the suck up from the bottom. Because of its size, the only known predators of the walrus, apart from native hunters, are killer whales and polar bears. Native hunters like the Inuit use all parts of the animal-meat and blubber for food, oil for heat and light, hide for ropes, and the tusks and bones for tools.
Visit The Children’s Museum and for an EXTREME adventure visit the Polar Bears to Penguins exhibit and learn more about the people and animals of the Arctic—they’re so cool they’re freezing cold!
