musk ox

The musk ox once roamed throughout Northern Europe and America, but now survives only in North Canada and Greenland. Living in herds of up to 100 individuals, musk oxen form a circle when threatened, facing outwards with horns lowered and with the young inside the circle. This is an effective defence against wolves, their natural enemy, but not against hunters with guns.

Ruminant (cud-chewing) mammal native to the Arctic regions of North America. It has characteristics of both sheep and oxen, is about the size of a small domestic cow, and has long brown hair. At certain seasons it has a musky smell. (Species Ovibos moschatus, family Bovidae.)

Its underwool (qiviut) is almost as fine as that of the vicuna, and musk-ox farms have been established in Alaska, Québec, and Norway to harvest this wool.