WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE MUSK OX

Musk ox are long haired stocky bovids that are adapted to living in northern open tundra windswept conditions. They eat grasses, sedges, forbs, willow, mosses and lichen, building up substantial accumulations of fat over the short summer. Females will not conceive unless they have substantial fat reserves. Poorly adapted for digging for food through heavy snow, in winter they seek out areas that are wind blown or have shallow accumulations of snow. They also eat a disproportionate amount of willow at that time.


By the 1880’s, due largely to over hunting, musk ox were wiped out in parts of their range which once stretched across Eurasia, Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska. It has since turned into a success story with musk ox being reintroduced into several parts of their former range, including here in Alaska.

However, advances in DNA analyses focusing on the amount of genetic variability in musk ox over time suggests they may be headed for serious problems. The studies reveal that their numbers have been going up and down over the past 60,000 years in response to the heating and cooling pattern of the earth. Ever since the last ice age 12,000 years ago when musk ox numbers were high around the globe, they have been in decline. The over hunting in the 1800’s was just a blip in the overall picture.

With global warming now markedly accelerating, especially in the Arctic, as a result of increases in the burning of fossil fuels elsewhere, there is concern that musk ox numbers will not only revert back to being in decline, but may start to accelerate downward.

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