Iqaluit (Feb 14/05) - Laughing, and joking in Inuktitut, Akulisik Nowdluk, Sammy Qaumariak and Jeannie Pudloo work away on the skin of a polar bear carcass whose meat was eaten shortly after it was first killed a week ago.

Kamiiks on, legs out at a 90-degree angle, the three women sit on the floor of a room in the Iqaluit elders centre on Feb. 7.

The evening news can be heard on a radio in another room. A report of Repulse Bay receiving this year's bowhead whale hunt draws some attention.

But not much seems to bother Nowdluk, Qaumariak, and Pudloo as they clean the skin of one of the city's first polar bear kills of the year with a variety of tools.

Using a knife, Qaumariak pries free one of the bear's feet and places it into a pail.

Pudloo uses an ulu, repeating a smooth stroke to carefully scrape fat from the hide.

Nowdluk spends her time working with precision - and a number of different tools - to loosen the animal's ears.

Experienced hunter Jonah Kelly says it takes a lot of patience to remove the ears properly.

When cleaning a hide, teamwork is important: nothing is rushed.

"If you get a big animal, everybody has to do their share. It's everybody's job," says Kelly, who sat, watched and laughed with the ladies during the process.

This bear was young, though Kelly says it is hard to tell exactly how old.

Once the cleaning was finished, the hide was expected to be hung on a rack to dry on Feb. 9 or 10.

David Kelly, Jonah Kelly's son and last year's Nunavut Snow Challenge champion, shot the bear on Feb. 1, the day Iqaluit's polar bear hunting season opened.

With more than one bear caught the same day, David just missed having the first kill of the season.