The muskox is an arctic mammal of the Bovidae family, noted for its thick coat and for the male's strong odor, hence the name.

It belongs to the Caprinae subfamily, being more closely related to goats than to oxen, but is in its own genus, Ovibos.

Both sexes have long curved horns.

Muskoxen are social and live in herds, usually of around 10–20 animals, but sometimes over 400.

Muskoxen are native to the Arctic areas of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska.

The Alaska population was wiped out in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, but muskoxen have since been reintroduced to Alaska..

For more information about the topic Muskox, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Wood Bison — The Wood Bison is a distinct northern subspecies of the North American Bison. Reduced by hunting from a total population of about 168,000 to less ...  > read more

Canada Lynx — The Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a close relative of the Eurasian Lynx. Some authorities regard both as conspecific. However, in some ...  > read more

Impala — An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. Exceedingly agile, impala are capable of leaping over 10 m in a single ...  > read more

Columbian White-tailed Deer — The Columbian white-tailed deer is one of 30 subspecies of the white-tailed deer in North America, and one of two subspecies found in Oregon, the ...  > read more

Related Stories

Muskox Suffered Loss Of Genetic Diversity At Pleistocene/Holocene Transition (October 6, 2005) — The tundra muskox, one of the few large northern mammals to have survived to the present day, saw its genetic diversity decrease greatly at the end of the Pleistocene period, around 10,000 years ...  > read more

Future Impact Of Global Warming Is Worse When Grazing Animals Are Considered, Scientists Suggest (August 21, 2008) — The impact of global warming in the Arctic may differ from the predictions of computer models, according to new research, which shows that grazing animals will play a key role in reducing the ...  > read more

Rare Musk Ox May Be Threatened By Climate Change (April 27, 2008) — The Wildlife Conservation Society recently launched a four-year study to determine if climate change is affecting populations of a quintessential Arctic denizen: the rare musk ox. The research team ...  > read more

US-Russia Polar Bear Treaty Ratified (October 18, 2007) — The US and Russia have ratified a bilateral agreement for the long-term conservation of shared polar bear populations in Alaska, the US and Chukotka, Russia. The treaty unifies US and Russian ...  > read more

Alaska Space Grant Program Launches B.E.A.R. (June 3, 2008) — The Alaska Space Grant Program and the Arctic Amateur Radio Club formed the Balloon Experiment And Research Program -- or B.E.A.R. for short -- in December 2007. The program's aim was to launch a ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Inside The Clouds