📷 Bluemask · Public domain
📷 The original uploader was Pethr at English Wikipedia.
📷 Hannes Grobe), AWI
IUCN: Least Concern
Muskox
Ovibos moschatus
KingdomAnimalia›PhylumChordata›ClassMammalia›OrderArtiodactyla›FamilyBovidae›GenusOvibos
About
Muskoxen are shaggy Pleistocene relics that survived the end of the Ice Age in Arctic refugia. When threatened, adults form a ring or line with horns facing out to shield calves from wolves. Their underwool, qiviut, is one of the warmest natural fibres on Earth. Hunted close to extinction by 1900, they were re-established across the Arctic in the twentieth century and remain a symbol of the far North.
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Arctic tundra, river valleys, and coastal lowlands
🍃Diet Herbivore — sedges, grasses, willows, and mosses
📏Size & Weight Body 1.9–2.3 m; shoulder height 1.1–1.5 m
•weight 180–410 kg
⏳Lifespan 12–20 years
🗺Range Arctic Canada, Alaska, and Greenland; reintroduced in Norway, Sweden, and Russia
MammalBovid
Key Facts
⛰Habitat Arctic tundra, river valleys, and coastal lowlands
🍃Diet Herbivore — sedges, grasses, willows, and mosses
📏Size & Weight Body 1.9–2.3 m; shoulder height 1.1–1.5 m
•weight 180–410 kg
⏳Lifespan 12–20 years
🗺Range Arctic Canada, Alaska, and Greenland; reintroduced in Norway, Sweden, and Russia
Photo Credits
#1Bluemask · Public domain
#2The original uploader was Pethr at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0
#3Hannes Grobe), AWI · CC BY-SA 2.5
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