Musk Oxen Thrive in Alaska

By Kayleen Reusser
Published on April 30, 2008
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The scenic Musk Ox Farm near Palmer, Alaska.
The scenic Musk Ox Farm near Palmer, Alaska.
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A majestic musk ox takes a stand in the wild.
A majestic musk ox takes a stand in the wild.

Experts say that musk oxen accompanied the woolly mammoth across the Bering land bridge straight into Pleistocene North America, but unlike their massive traveling companions, the heavy-coated oxen are still here to talk about it. One might wonder how any prehistoric animal could survive the ages. Part of the answer lies in the musk ox’s unique adaptation to live where relatively few competitors or predators dare – where temperatures can dip to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Surviving cold like that can be a bit of a trick. For the musk ox, called oomingmak or “bearded one” by Native Alaskans, it’s all about an undercoat called qiviut (pronounced KIH-vee-ute). But it wasn’t always so easy.

Survival of the musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) to the 1800s was no problem, but they then were hunted to near extinction by the 1850s. Luckily some animals survived in Greenland and, with a bit of governmental intervention and the hard work of forward-thinking conservationists, musk oxen once again thrive in Alaska and Canada. One healthy herd resides at the historically significant Musk Ox Farm, established in 1964 as part of a renewed domestication effort in Alaska.

Farming for fleece

In the 1930s, an Alaskan project to domesticate musk oxen from Greenland was attempted, but it failed, and the remaining animals were released on Nunivak Island where the herd turned wild. In 1964, anthropologist John Teal captured 33 calves from the Nunivak Island herd and established his Musk Ox Farm in Unakaleet, later moving it to a location near Talkeetna. Teal succeeded at his goal to domesticate the musk ox for its qiviut.

The Musk Ox Farm relocated to Palmer about 20 years ago. Palmer is situated in the Matanuska Valley in the central part of the state. George Palmer established the town as a trading post along the Matanuska River. In 1935, more than 200 farming families from the Midwest relocated to the valley with dreams of developing the area’s agricultural prospects. This Midwestern migration was part of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration’s New Deal program, which was designed to help alleviate rampant unemployment. Some of the buildings still in use at the farm were built by those Midwestern families.

Today, the Musk Ox Farm annually hosts nearly 25,000 tourists who come to see how the unusual arctic animals live and to see firsthand how the musk ox helps the Alaskan economy thrive.

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