1. MUSKOX
By Jon Meyer

2. COMMON AND SCIENTIFIC NAME
Ovibos moschatus is the Scientific name for a Muskox
Is apart of the Bovidae family which means it is apart of the hoofed, ruminant mammals.
This includes bison, African buffalo, water buffalo, antelopes, gazelles, sheep, goats, and domestic cattle.
Water Buffalo
Muskox

3. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Both males and females have horns.
Thick coat of Fur, to protect against cold artic environments
Usually brown, black or gray in color.
Males can be up to 8 ft tall. Females are a little shorter about 6ft
Can weigh anywhere from 400 to 1200 lbs full grown.
The calves can weigh up to 200lbs at birth.

4. GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
Muskox have been located in the North Eastern parts of Canada and Greenland and on the north western coast of Alaska.

5. POPULATION
There are over 125,000 Muskoxen in North America and the population seems to keep growing by 10,000 every year. Across the tundra they have lived and thrived for hundreds of years and now that the hunting of muskox has declined the population of them is growing.

6. TERMINOLOGY A Male Muskox is called a Bull
A Female Muskox is called a Cow
And baby muskox is called a Calf
Just the same as the other hoofed ruminants we have in our area.

7. RELATIONSHIPS AND REPRODUCTION
The rut or mating season for Musk Oxen begins in late summer and early fall. Males will compete for dominance over a group of females, and a single male will mate with several females. The gestation or pregnancy period will then last 8 months and the female will give birth to one calf in the spring.

8. HABITAT
Musk Oxen are roaming animals that live in herds. A herd will often remain in a certain range where it will have access to food and water, and will roam within that range throughout the seasons to locate those resources.

9. DIET AND FOOD CHAIN
Musk Oxen are vegetarian and will eat much of the vegetation that is available in the tundra. This includes willow shoots, lichens, grass and shrubs.
They eat mainly plants.
They will rarely eat meet, mice and rats if they are already dead, some birds too.
But they are mainly Herbivores.
It doesn’t have much of a food chain because it eats mainly plants, but a few things that eat it are humans, wolves and sometimes bears, lynx and foxes, and just about anything that eats meat.

10. 3 INTERESTING FACTS
The infants are able to keep up with their mothers and the rest of the herd within a few hours of birth.
Musk-oxen are herd animals, and groups of two or three dozen animals are sometimes led by a single female.
The muskox and the caribou are the only two hoofed mammals that survived the end of the Pleistocene Era, 10,000 years ago.

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