Oosik in the news

[Benjamin Barrett]

In the Seattle Times today by Erika Bolstad, (http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2019676814_polarbears14.html):

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Since polar bears were listed in 2008 as threatened, Americans haven't been able to import polar bear trophies — generally a tanned skin and claws along with the skull and the penis bone, known scientifically as a "baculum" and in the indigenous languages of the Arctic as an "oosik."
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The earliest citation I find on Google Books is 1966 (http://ow.ly/fiGTc). I haven't been thorough, but the citations I saw indicated that "oosik" is a walrus penis bone. Also, I don't see which languages that "languages of the Arctic" refer to.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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