The masked shrew and other mammals you didn’t know about

MIRIAM HILL

Students in Nunavut schools will soon have another resource book to add to their collections.

Terrestrial Mammals of Nunavut, a soft-cover 200-page colour-illustrated book written in both English and Inuktitut, is the third in a series of books created in partnership with the departments of sustainable development, education and the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.

Launched at Aqsarniit School in Iqaluit on Tuesday, the event drew about 65 people, including elders, students and government staff.

Jim Noble, the executive director of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, stood quietly listening as an array of people sang the book’s praises.

“This book is very much a celebration of partnerships,” said Tom Rich, deputy minister of education. It is a partnership between government departments, between the elders, youth and the author and a partnership of traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge.

The first two books, Birds of Nunavut, published in 1994, and Marine Mammals of Nunavut, published in 2001, were created in much the same way as this latest project and by mainly the same group of people, Noble said. They searched for dollars to make the book and then found an author.

Written by Ingrid Anand-Wheeler and illustrated by renowned artists Lucy MacDonald and Andrew Qappik, the terrestrial mammal book also contains photographs taken by National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen.

Noble said that when these top-notch people heard the book was to be used in schools, they cut their usual rates, allowing the project to go ahead.

“A lot of the information comes out of the research centre in Igloolik where they have a lot of the traditional knowledge documented,” he said. Additional information came from interviews with elders and scientists.

There are some topics, however, for which there is little or no traditional knowledge, Noble said, using the masked shrew as an example. Where most of the species documented in the book have a section devoted to “Did You Know” facts, the masked shrew entry says that the species is still continuing to be recognized.

More resource books are being planned, including plants of Nunavut, marine fishes of Nunavut and insects of Nunavut. Noble says traditional knowledge about the marine fishes and insects may also be scarce.

Terrestrial Mammals of Nunavut will be made available to all schools in Nunavut, as well as public libraries and Hunters and Trappers Associations.