RETURN OF THE MUSK OXEN — JACKSON 387 



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destination in excellent condition. Most of the animals were not 

 wild and were easily driven. One or two of the smallest ones even 

 yielded to petting and handling. Food for their first Alaskan winter 

 was varied for tests, but they were successfully fed on a number 

 of grasses, including alfalfa hay, oat hay, brome hay, and native hay 

 (sedge and redtop). Each animal ate about 5 pounds of food daily. 



A SIX-YEAR STUDY OF CAPTIVE MUSK OXEN 



And so began the unique 6-year study of confined musk oxen. 

 Charles H. Rouse and the late Lawrence J. Palmer, two outstanding 

 authorities on range management and animal husbandry, conducted 

 the research. Each had had practical experience with range cattle, 

 sheep, and horses; each, a thorough university education in range 

 mangement; each, long, close contact with big game in the wild. 

 Early in the spring of 1931 the animals were released in a 4,000-acre 

 fenced enclosure of the 7,559-acre pasture included in the experiment 

 station grounds. Soon it was noticed that the 4,000-acre pasture was 

 too large and the herd was then confined to a pasture of 1,077 acres 

 of which 600 acres were summer pasture, 325 acres spring pasture, 

 82 acres fall pasture, and 70 acres winter and hay meadow. Smaller 

 pastures were fenced for isolating a few musk oxen for observation 

 or study. Corrals were constructed and a loading chute built for 

 easier handling of the animals. 



Three years later, June 30, 1934, of the original 34 animals, 24 had 

 survived — 12 breeding-age cows and 12 bulls. Ten deaths in the 

 herd had occurred — five animals were killed by black bears, one cow 

 had a broken leg, one died from meningitis, one from actinomycosis, 

 and two from some unknown sickness. Between April 29 and June 

 24, seven calves were born of which five lived. One had been still- 

 born and another died from injuries received from a bull musk ox. 



The spring of 1935 was a rewarding one, for each adult cow gave 

 birth to a calf, though in one case of a stillborn calf, the cow also 

 died. The herd then comprised 12 adult bulls, 11 adult cows, and 

 15 immature, or young ones; a total of 38 musk oxen, the highest 

 number reached at the experiment station. No calves were born in 

 1936, and through the deaths of seven animals and the transfer of 

 four to Nunivak Island for adaptation studies, the herd was reduced 

 in June to 27 animals. It is believed that the cows that gave birth to 

 calves, both in 1934 and in 1935, did so because their previous year's 

 calves were separated from the cows in the fall of 1934. The following 

 year of 1936, the calves were not isolated from their mothers, there- 

 fore were not weaned, and the cows did not breed. In the wild, natural 

 condition on its native range, the musk ox does not wean its calf until 

 the second summer and so breeds every other year. 



