Gioca STEMAnimals

Animals · Ice: the Arctic and Antarctica

Musk ox

Ovibos moschatus

A wall of horns against wolves

A herd of musk oxen in a defensive circle, protecting their calves in the center of the group.
A herd of musk oxen in a defensive circle, protecting their calves in the center of the group.
  • Status: Safe
  • Arctic tundra of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Northern Europe

Numbers

Weight
660 lbfrom 440 to 880 lb in adults
Length
80 inup to 100 in in the largest specimens
Height
55 inat the shoulders; on average about 39 in
Lifespan
20 yearsmaximum reported lifespan
Herd
100 individualsusually 10 to 20
Gestation
9 months8 to 9 months, a single calf
Age of its group
12 million yearsappearance of Ovibovini in the Upper Miocene

Ten fun facts

  1. despite its name, the musk ox is more closely related to domestic goats than to bulls, belonging to the goat subfamily.

  2. the musk ox gets its common name from the strong musky odor of its coat, which is thick enough to reach the ground.

  3. the musk ox is the only living member of the genus Ovibos, as all its close relatives became extinct over time.

  4. the group to which the musk ox belongs, Ovibovini, arose in Eurasia during the Late Miocene, twelve to eight million years ago.

  5. the most likely ancestor of the musk ox was named Praeovibos and lived during the Pleistocene, the age of the great ice ages.

  6. the defensive circle of the herd works against Arctic wolves, but it is useless if the attacker is a polar bear.

  7. female musk oxen mature at two years old and males at five, with gestation lasting eight or nine months.

  8. a musk ox calf nurses for a full year, but it can start eating grass just one week after birth.

  9. in the late nineteenth century, overhunting wiped out musk oxen in Alaska, but the species was soon reintroduced.

  10. the Asian takin looks very similar to the musk ox, but DNA shows this is a coincidence called convergent evolution.

The quiz answers

The first one is the question printed in your book: here is the answer. The other four are extra.

Question 1 of 5★ this one is in your book

Which domestic animal is the musk ox most closely related to?

Question 2 of 5

How does the herd defend itself when wolves arrive?

Question 3 of 5

How much can an adult musk ox weigh?

Question 4 of 5

How does it find food in winter?

Question 5 of 5

What happened to the musk oxen of Alaska?

Try it yourself

Experiment 1

Use a tape measure to mark four and a half feet on a wall, then stand next to it to see the shoulder height of an adult musk ox.

Experiment 2

Arrange fifteen objects in a circle facing outward and put three in the middle, creating a model of the defensive circle formed by the herd.

Experiment 3

Weigh your school backpack and calculate how many times it goes into nine hundred pounds, the weight of an adult musk ox.

Data from Wikidata (Q184004) and Wikipedia (Muskox).