The musk oxen are large animals that look a lot like bisons or buffalos, but are significantly smaller than cows and provide wool like sheep. Its long, brown fur hangs almost to its feet. It is peaceful animals that only eat plants and are full-grown at the age of six.
Musk oxen are one of the oldest species of mammals still living today. About one million years ago the ancestors of these bovines roamed the steppes of Northern Asia, along with the mammoth. They are acclimatized the barren arctic deserts with its extreme cold and food with low nutritive value.
Males (bulls) typically stand 4½ to 5 feet at the shoulder and can weigh up to
800 pounds. Females (cows) are much smaller, averaging approximately 4
feet in height and weighing up to 500 pounds.
The stocky musk ox has a cold-resistant, dark brown or black fur. Its coat
contains thick guard hairs that nearly touch the ground and protect a very
dense, wooly inner layer called qiviut (pronounced kiv-ee-ute), which sheds
in the spring.
The male has thick horns that almost meet on top of its head in what is called
a “boss.” The horns curve down around his face and out at the ends. The
female has considerably smaller horns, without a boss. Instead the top of her
head is covered with whitish hair.
In the middle of the 18. century musk oxen were extinct in north America and only lived in Greenland. Species from Greenland were moved to Canada, and today they live wild in Canada, and are farmraised in Alaska, Canada and Montana. There are experiments at certain farms with a groth hormone, methionine, which should make the wool longer
In Greenland the Musk ox lives as it has allways done, in the wild, forming small herds in the arctic desert land. It is fully grown at the age of 6 and there are strict hunting quota to ensure the population.
The musk ox sheds its fleece once a year, typically in spring, and grows a new layer each fall. It usually bears only one calf every two years. The fleece yield is five to seven pounds per musk ox, which is cleaned and de-haired.
In Greenland, some inuit collect the wool from shrubs and rocks, but that wool is used only in the family. Every year a number of animals are hunted by local hunters, the meat sold in the local market. The hides are now sold to my supplier, the wool are cleaned and dehaired, sent to England to be cleaned again, and finally shipped til Denmark to be spun – and become the yarn I sell.
Life Span/Social Structure
Cows may live more than 20 years, but the average lifespan is much less.
On average, bulls die at a younger age than cows because of the increased
risks of injury during fights over females.
Social by nature, muskoxen live in medium-sized groups of 10 to 20
individuals during the winter. During the summer, a dominant bull drives
out the other males, forming a harem.
Bulls fight for dominance with threats, loud bellows, and ferocious head
butting during breeding season, which occurs late summer. Two males will
engage in a ritualized display designed to intimidate each other, including
pawing at the ground, walking stiff-legged, and aggressively swinging their
massive horns. Following the displays, the bulls will face-off and back up
100 feet or so before charging together at speeds close to 35 miles per hour.
The head smashing may continue for up to a dozen times before one bull
quits and submits to the other.
Gestation lasts eight to nine months, and a single calf is born late spring or
early summer. Twins occur, but are extremely rare.
When threatened, muskoxen form a defensive formation around their young.
They will first run to a higher location, then turn and stand shoulder-toshoulder in a circle facing their enemies. With their heads lowered, they form an impenetrable wall.
The Arctic wolf is the muxkox’s only serious predator.