Wildlife
Musk oxen are truly arctic animals, well-adapted to their extreme environment with a superbly insulated, long, thick coat of dark brown hair and woolly undercoat. They became extinct across much of their range in Europe and Alaska, largely as a result of over-hunting, but have been successfully reintroduced.
Scientific name: Ovibos moschatus
Rank: Species
In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.
Musk ox calves
Born directly on to the snow in April, musk ox calves are tough and strong.
Wild musk ox became extinct in Siberia 10,000 years ago and were reintroduced from animals in North America in 1975.
Polar titans
Large male musk ox will fight to the death to defend their right to breed.
Large male musk ox will fight to the death to defend their right to breed.
Ride to the rescue
Working together saves the life of the young calf.
Working together saves the life of the young calf.
Strong as an ox?
Even healthy musk oxen populations struggle when food is scarce.
The number of musk oxen has recovered dramatically in Canada since the turn of the century. Dr Anne Gunn, a government biologist, has worked with musk oxen for several years. She believes there may still be problems for them in years to come. When food is scarce it is often the prime males who are the first to die, because they have used up their fat reserves in the autumn rut.
Winter warmers
Warm blood and thick fur help mammals like musk oxen and seals survive in extreme cold.
Warm blood and thick fur help mammals like musk oxen and seals survive in extreme cold.
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.
The Musk ox can be found in a number of locations including: Arctic, North America, Russia. Find out more about these places and what else lives there.
The following habitats are found across the Musk ox distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.
TundraDiscover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.
Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web
Least Concern
Population trend: Stable
Year assessed: 2008
Classified by: IUCN 3.1
The muskox (Ovibos moschatus, musk ox) is an Arctic mammal of the family Bovidae, noted for its thick coat and for the strong odor emitted by males, from which its name derives. This musky odor is used to attract females during mating season. Muskoxen primarily live in the Canadian Arctic and Greenland, with small introduced populations in Sweden, Siberia, Norway, and Alaska.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.
Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.
This is Planet Earth
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough Planet Earth was the ground-breaking series that explored the wild and beautiful parts of our planet like never before.
Baby Animals
With Ooh's and Ahh's galore this video clip collection celebrates a world of adorable animal babies.
BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
Predation defence
Hierarchical
Acoustic communication
Herbivorous
Maternal care
Moulting
Polygynous
Active at birth
Social
Cold tolerant
Adapted to running
Seed dispersal
Chemical communication
Sexual dimorphism
Visual communication
Viviparous