Nanuk

"I can't come with you. You must be strong. You are strong, stronger than you know. You'll be all right."

— Nanuk to Kallik in The Quest Begins, page 278

Nanuk
Biographical information
Species:	Polar Bear
Cause of death:	Died from helicopter crash injuries
Family
Cubs:	Unnamed cubs
Foster daughter:	Kallik
Book appearances
Living	The Quest Begins
Living	The Quest Begins
Dead	Great Bear Lake, The Melting Sea
Dead	Great Bear Lake, The Melting Sea

Nanuk (nan-uck) is a female polar bear with a flattish muzzle and tiny ears. 

History

In The Original Series arc

The Quest Begins

Nanuk was one of the bears that Kallik met when she was captured by no-claws by the Burn-Sky Gathering Place. She had cubs before she was captured, but their fate is unknown. She was reluctant to talk about it, so they are presumably dead.

The no-claws covered Kallik in a strange smelling liquid and put her in the same cage as Nanuk. Nanuk told Kallik that the no-claws covered her in the liquid so it would hide her scent from her, in the hope she would take her in, thinking Kallik was her daughter. Nanuk decided to care for her. She comforted Kallik, saying that she couldn't replace her mother but she could act like it.

When the no-claws tried to release Nanuk and Kallik back into the wild, they carried them in a net under a metal bird. As they traveled, something went wrong with the metal bird and it crashed to the ground. Nanuk was badly wounded from the crash and died not long after. As she was dying, she told Kallik that she wouldn't be able to care for her, and that she should find Taqqiq—if he was still alive.

Great Bear Lake

Kallik, full of grief, walks away from Nanuk's dead body.

Qanniq, one of the white bears at Great Bear Lake, asked if anyone had seen Nanuk lately. Kallik told her and some other bears that Nanuk had died. Another bear said that it was rumored that when her cubs died, Nanuk ate them, but Kallik doesn't believe in such a thing.

In the Return to the Wild arc

The Melting Sea

Nanuk doesn't make a physical appearance. Kallik finds the same wreckage of the metal bird she and Nanuk had been in before Nanuk died and tries to find Nanuk's body. Yakone gently tells her that her body would have gone by now, and Kallik hesitates before leaving the wreckage alone.

Trivia

• Nanuk lost a litter of cubs before she met Kallik.
• Nanuk's name means "polar bear" in Inuktitut.