Hunting in Western Samoa and Eastern Samoa - Traditional methods in Polynesia

A sketch of a type of wild boar with it's thick 

armored shoulder blades

In both Western and Eastern Samoa the hunting culture has changed little, mostly personally favored gear or safety concerns are added to hunts, sometimes they are discarded but for the most part - Samoa is Samoa. The most popular hunting ways remain still in Samoa which includes either the vast dangerous open waters of the ocean or the thick bush land hunt. Samoa has some the best fishing grounds in the World and ocean hunting involves using lures, nets, underwater slings or spear fishing, fake home traps so that prey feel safe, mate-baits (female bait designs), and fish herding is a well known practice. During large social events an entire village will create a very wide and long barrier with a leafy-rope and herd fish in shallow water to a death spot, where they're kept immobile, then the youth and women will jump inside the circle and bash the herd. Samoans have always rotated fishing grounds and there are areas where Giant Clams (rare), muscles, and many reef life, are kept safe to breed for only select event picking. Even though hunting is extremely rewarding for Samoans they have still been known to use aquaculture at times in private pools and agricultural (Plantation business - Horticulture) has always been a huge part of the Samoan lifestyle. Fruits are easily picked down paths to homes and it's harder to stop things from growing than it is to farm. Samoan plantations carry a garden variety of eatable fruits and plants and hold meat stock for immediate supply use, the traditional plantation animals being the Southeast Asian or Samoan chicken and the domesticated farm pig.

On land Wild Boar hunting with a pack of wolf-dogs is the more popular way for acquiring wild game, allowing Samoan men to socialize and have some sport. The hunting can be part of a duty or just a pastime with friends. Usually the wolf-dogs have a leader or elder hunter in the pack which guides the pack in a way that they need very little help from the human hunting party. The human hunting party will either follow tracks or attempt at herding the boar toward the wolf-dogs.

Southeast Asian Flying Fox - The Flying Fox in Samoa 

is hunted at night and the men have time to relax and cook over the camp fire.

Hunting the Flying-fox (Southeast Asia & Polynesia Samoan Bat - biggest flying mammal in the world) is also a pastime. The Flying Fox (various species) is found from Southeast Asia to Melanesia, Australia, and into the 16 million square-mile Polynesian Triangle, but mostly on the central Pacific islands.

The Polynesian Wolf in the Pacific

The Asia Pacific Polynesian wolf breed originates in Southeast Asia, brought to Outer Oceania during the Polynesian colonization of the Pacific thousands of years ago. In Australia, the same Polynesian wolf breed is called a "Dingo", however that is not it's name, labeled so by foreigners. It's been hard for academics to label the Polynesian Wolf over the years, but most academics do agree it is most definitely a wolf or wolf-dog. The genetic studies have shown that it's an ancestor of Asian wolves and connected to other wolf-dog like in Japan. The Japanese Dog called the 'Shiba- Inu', has been compared and shown related. The wolf-dog has been found in many islands across the Pacific, even in Aotearoa New Zealand and in the United States (The American Dingo - Carolina dog). There is still controversy on how the breed made it to the Americas before Euro-colonial times and if it was brought by early Polynesian explorers.

"They look like dogs because they have short haired mane but they only have short haired mane because they live in tropical climates. There is documentation of the Dingos having a full wolf haired mane in colder climates around the mountains. In most cases they are called wolf-dogs"

Sketch drawn of Tahitian hunting wolf-dog on a Polynesian vessel

 1769 first voyage of British Captain James Cook

Illustration of the Southeast Asian and Polynesian 

traditional hunting wolf-dog breed

The wolf-dog breed above is well known in Australia originating from the Pacific island seafarers brought from Southeast Asia. Footage of a traditional Samoan hunt is in the link below. Charles Catton illustrated a Tahitian dog which resembles an Alpine-white Dingo. The three colors of the Polynesian wolf are Golden-tanned with white fur areas (picture above), Alpine-white sometimes with or without Golden-tanned fur, and Black with Golden-tanned fur, the same as with many wolves and wolf-dogs in Asia. The dogs used in this video are not all Dingos types, some are mixed euro-breeds that arrived with foreigners. 

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[-] Western Samoa - Wild Boar Hunting

Posted in: Hunting and Trapping Studies,Pacific Culture Studies