Musk Oxen, a Brief Introduction....

          On a snowy afternoon last winter my cousin and I took a drive up to Trenton New Jersey to take a tour of “The Old Barracks Museum” to fulfill an assignment I had been given in one of my classes that semester. After we had seen our fill of the intriguing structure we figured that we might as well take a look around the Trenton Visitor Center in order to query whether there were any other points of interests we should pursue in the area since we had come so far in such bad weather. As we explored the visitor center several exhibits that sounded mildly interesting were advertised here and there, and since we had no particular place to be we decided to meander through and see what there was to see.

          Upstairs we discovered a fairly interesting exhibit which subject was centered around the climatic changes that have taken place in New Jersey in, oh about the last billion years or so. It had many displays and paintings demonstrating the landscape of New Jersey during the ice age – one of the most fascinating sights in the entire exhibit was an enormous and stalwart stuffed musk oxen that was placed in the center of the room. According to the exhibit musk oxen were likely prominent in New Jersey during this time and that musk oxen bones had been found which were used to prove this. Regardless of whether or not musk oxen had been prevalent in this state at one time or not, this exhibit had gotten me hooked on these adorable fuzzy creatures which I can very easily say now, are my favorite animal! Until this day I had never even heard of musk oxen, so when I went home I was compelled to Google search these adorable creatures and find out some more information about them. It turns out that they are very interesting and gentle animals, although I did not find a huge amount of information, it seems that people who have had the opportunity to see a real musk oxen have become as endeared by them as I have.

            Musk Oxen are large woolly arctic mammals, which surprisingly are more closely related to sheep or goats then they are bovine. They are pack animals and usually live in herds of 10-20 oxen, but herds can sometimes be as large as 70 or more. Both male and female musk oxen have large curved horns, and they have a very thick coat of fur which is capable of keeping them warm in extremely frigid weather. Muskoxen stand 3 feet 11 inches high at the shoulder on average, with females measuring 53 to 78 inches in length, and males 78 to 98 inches. Adults, on average, weigh around 630 pounds however they range anywhere from 397 to 882 pounds. The musk oxens large head and wide set shoulders often make them seem larger than they actually are.

Whether or not musk oxen truly did live in New Jersey thousands (or millions) of years ago or not, it is certain that they no longer live anywhere near this area, nor have they for quite some time. According to my research, in the early 1900's the musk oxen were over hunted and almost disappeared. Musk oxen were hunted for their meat and hides, which are apparently very valuable (more on this in a later post). In 1917 the Canadian government passed a law against killing the musk ox. Today, In Canada more than 85,000 musk oxen live on the mainland and Arctic islands of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Small herds live in northern Yukon. Musk oxen are also found in Alaska, Greenland, Norway and Russia.

            This is just the tip of the iceberg (hah!) when it comes to musk oxen. They are extremely interesting creatures and there is far more to be said on their relational dynamics, history, modern uses, temperaments, ect. I have found that many people do not even know what musk oxen are, and I’m not very surprised considering a little over a year ago I was no better enlightened – that is why I am writing this blog. I believe that there is much to be learned from this wise and ancient creature.