MUSK OX

We’re listening to the sound of a Musk Ox. Despite their name, Musk Oxen aren’t oxen, nor do they produce musk. They’re large shaggy haired vegetarian goat -antelopes that are uniquely adapted to the Arctic environment. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.

In the last century, Musk Oxen were nearly hunted to extinction in Alaska and Canada. And now, a reintroduction program is breeding Musk Oxen in Alaska, giving scientists an opportunity to study these animals.

“They’ve got the gut of a cow, or the gut of a classic grazer; they’ve got the eyes of a goat and they’ve got feet that look like snowshoes. So they are a very, very strange animal. And then they also produce wool. You’ve got a mixture of all these attributes that you would never really find, and all it means is that simply this is the best solution they’ve converged upon for a whole series of problems.”

Perry Barboza is a researcher with the University of Alaska’s Institute of Arctic Biology. He tells us that one way Musk Oxen deal with the Arctic winter is by lowering their metabolism, so that they require less food to survive.

“They’ve got an ability to just go from very very low to very very high in their metabolism, so that at some stages, they’re behaving like high production and the next minute they are behaving like something archaic and very conservative and not doing anything with its resources until it’s ready to invest. Their strategy is simply don’t use it until you’re ready to go because the risks of being up here are so high.”

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.

MUSK OX

What looks like a cross between a cow, a goat and an antelope?
Air Date:10/01/1999
Scientist:
Transcript:

We're listening to the sound of a Musk Ox. Despite their name, Musk Oxen aren't oxen, nor do they produce musk. They're large shaggy haired vegetarian goat -antelopes that are uniquely adapted to the Arctic environment. I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.

In the last century, Musk Oxen were nearly hunted to extinction in Alaska and Canada. And now, a reintroduction program is breeding Musk Oxen in Alaska, giving scientists an opportunity to study these animals.

"They've got the gut of a cow, or the gut of a classic grazer; they've got the eyes of a goat and they've got feet that look like snowshoes. So they are a very, very strange animal. And then they also produce wool. You've got a mixture of all these attributes that you would never really find, and all it means is that simply this is the best solution they've converged upon for a whole series of problems."

Perry Barboza is a researcher with the University of Alaska's Institute of Arctic Biology. He tells us that one way Musk Oxen deal with the Arctic winter is by lowering their metabolism, so that they require less food to survive.

"They've got an ability to just go from very very low to very very high in their metabolism, so that at some stages, they're behaving like high production and the next minute they are behaving like something archaic and very conservative and not doing anything with its resources until it's ready to invest. Their strategy is simply don't use it until you're ready to go because the risks of being up here are so high."

Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I'm Jim Metzner.