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Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) |
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| Class |
Mammalia |
| Order |
Artiodactyla |
| Family |
Bovidae |
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The Oppenheim Zoo
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Muskox live in one of the most inhospitable regions on the globe.. the polar arctic. Having grazed with woolly mammoths, they were nearly wiped out prior to the 1900's. |
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| Physical Characteristics: Muskox are the cattle of the tundra resembling a sort of long haired cross between a bison and a cow. They stand a maximum of 5 feet at the humped shoulder and are covered in very dense long dark brown hair. Males have a mane of longer hair not unlike a lions. This covers a very dense wool undercoat finer than cashmere. Muskox have been known to die when the long hairs get frozen into the ice while lying down.
Their legs are colored a light brown. Both sexes have horns but the males are much larger and grow in a handlebar moustache shape off the head. They form a wide, large, bony plate across the top of the head. Males weigh between 750- 800 pounds (340-363 kg).
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| Habitat and Range: The muskox range is circumpolar around the arctic circle. It lives on the treeless tundra and extends southerly into the boreal forests. |
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Diet : Muskox are herbivores consuming willows, grasses, sedges and dwarf birch. They dislike lichens, the primary food of their cohabitants the caribou. |
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Habits and Behavior: Gregarious like cattle, muskox form bands numbering about 15 individuals, but may contain as many as 100. Cows and calves constitute most of the herds being joined by bulls only during the breeding season. Summers are spent in lower elevations and valleys. In winter they move to higher ground where wind whips the snow away making it easier to access the buried vegetation. Musk ox require only 1/6 the fodder of domestic livestock. |
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Predator defense is a tight circle of bulls and cows shoulder to shoulder with rumps toward the center of the circle and heads facing out. Calves huddle in the center of the circle. In this way vital areas and animals are protected and any predator attempting to break into the group is met with horns and hooves. This defense worked well against wolves for thousands of years, but faired poorly against firearms. |
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| Reproduction: Males are polygamous and will fight each other for access to the females, which are herded into harems and usually controlled by the most mature bulls. The rut starts in late July and runs through September. Fights can last hours and tear up a lot of ground. Bulls smash heads together from a run, always impacting the horny plate until one tires and is chased off. Single calves are born in April and May. |
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Status: Muskox were easy targets for man and heavily hunted for meat and carriage robes. They were nearly wiped out before the 1900's. The last in Alaska were shot in the 1850s. Finally in 1917 Canada created total protection. In 1930 the U.S. Congress allocated $40,000 to re-establish herds in Alaska. In typical government blundering, 34 animals of a different subspecies were purchased from Greenland instead of neighboring Canada. Those animals endured a 6 year, 10,000 mile shuffle before finally being released July 17, 1936 on the island of Nunivak off the west coast of Alaska. Today about 15,000 muskox inhabit Greenland with another 10,000 scattered across Canada, Norway and the former Soviet Union. |
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