Musk Ox
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? Musk
ox |
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| Ovibos
moschatus ( Zimmermann, 1780) |
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The musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) is an arctic mammal of the Bovidae family, noted for its thick coat and for the male's strong odor, hence the name. It belongs to the Caprinae subfamily, being more closely related to goats than to oxen, but is in its own genus, Ovibos. Both sexes have long curved horns. Musk oxen are usually around 2.5 m long and 1.4 m high at the shoulder. Adults usually weigh at least 200 kg and can exceed 400 kg. Their coat, a mix of brown, gray, and yellow, includes long guard hairs that reach almost to the ground.
During the summer, musk oxen live in wet areas, such as river valleys, moving to higher elevations in the winter to avoid deep snow. They graze on grasses, reeds, sedges, and other ground plants, digging through snow in the winter to reach their food.
Musk oxen are social and live in herds, usually of around 10–20 animals, but sometimes over 100. Winter herds consist of adults of both sexes as well as young animals. During the mating season, which peaks in mid-August, males compete for dominance, and one dominant bull drives other adult males out of the group.
Females are sexually mature at two years of age, and males reach sexual maturity after five years. The gestation period is eight or nine months. Almost all pregnancies yield single calves; the young nurse for a year, but may start to eat grasses as soon as a week after birth.
Musk oxen have a distinctive defensive behaviour in which, when the herd is threatened, the bulls, facing outward, will form a stationary ring around the cows and calves. This is an effective defense against predators such as wolves, but makes them an easy target for human hunters.
Musk oxen are native to the Arctic areas of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. The Alaska population was wiped out in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, but Musk oxen have since been reintroduced to Alaska. The species has also been reintroduced to northern Europe, including Sweden, the Dovre region of Norway, and Russia. Musk oxen were close to extinction at one point, but have recovered after being protected from hunting. The world population (as of 1999) is estimated at between 65,000 and 85,000, and increasing, especially in the areas where the animal was introduced in the 20th century.
Musk ox wool, or qiviut (an Inuit word), is highly prized for its softness, length, and insulative value.
The species has lived since the last ice age, rubbing shoulders with woolly mammoths.
Literature, references
- Jork Meyer (2004): Sex ratio in muskox skulls (Ovibos moschatus) found at East Greenland - Geschlechterverhältnis bei Schädeln des Moschusochsen (Ovibos moschatus) in Ostgrönland, Beiträge zur Jagd- und Wildtierforschung 29: 187-192. http://www.staff.uni-marburg.de/~meyerj/Ms%20Ovibos%20moschatus.pdf