MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. ' 



By JCL. SCIIIUTT, 



Director of tlie Zoological Garden in Copenhagen. 



The musk ox is undoubtedh' one of the most interesting- of the 

 ruminants. Intermediate in form between the sheep and the ox, he is 

 able, even better than the reindeer, to withstand high degrees of cold 

 and to exist upon the scanty resources of the polar regions. In doing 

 this he scorns lichens, the chief winter sustenance of the reindeer, and 

 which were formerly erroneously considered as his principal food. 

 It has been settled, especially through the investigations of Professor 

 Nathorst, that the musk oxen of the arctic fields live upon grasses and 

 other plants which to some extent keep fresh and green throughout 

 the long polar winter, so that the animals have merely to paw awa}" 

 the snow in order to get fodder. During the winter they are also 

 nourished by the reserve of fat accumulated during the sununer, when 

 in protected valleys the fruitful earth spreads out a rich carpet of 

 grass. 



The hairy coat of the nuisk ox is warmer than that of any other 

 mannnal. I-ndcr the long, dark-brown outer hair there grows during 

 the autunm a thick coat of line, soft wool, which remains until the next 

 summer, when it falls off in large flocks, the long, smooth outer hair 

 remaining. Formerly the musk ox lived in all the countries lying 

 about the north pole and was found much farther south than at pres- 

 ent. Its fossil remains have been found in Siberia and England, as 

 well as in Denmark, and even in German}-, about to the limit to which 

 the ice of the glacial period extended. Yet it certainly was never 

 abundant in our hemisphere, and, at any rate, it has not survived the 

 glacial period, as has the reindeer, which extended farther north. 



At the present time it is found onl}' in the most northerly regions 

 of the Western Hemisphere, both upon the continent and upon large 

 circumpolar islands, especially in the northern and northeastern por- 

 tions of Greenland. 



Since the time when the great Hudson's Ba}'^ Fur Compan}- was 

 founded (1670) the skin of the musk ox has been known in Europe, 



« Translated from Der Zoologische Garten r Frankfurt A. M.), 1908, pp. 305-317. 



601 



