Back from the Edge of Extinction: Musk Oxen at the UAF Large Animal Research Station
Written: Apr 22 '01 (Updated Apr 27 '01)
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Pros: Up-close and personal look at a fascinating creature that has survived from prehistoric times.
Cons: Some tour guides are a little too academic for the general public.
The Bottom Line: Nobody visits me without a trip to the UAF Large Animal Resarch Station. Entertaining, educational and fun; see how a nearly extinct animal has been reintroduced to Alaska and flourished.
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| wovengold's Full Review: University of Alaska-Fairbanks |
Note: This opinion is restricted to a discussion of the Institute of Arctic Biology's Large Animal Research Station.
If you had lived in Alaska in the Pleistocene Era, between 2 million and 10,000 years ago, you would have seen wooly mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers… and musk oxen. As the climate changed, the other prehistoric mammals slowly became extinct, but the musk oxen lived on. Worldwide, their population decreased and concentrated into the Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, but the species survived, adapting to the changing environment.
If you had lived in Alaska in the mid-1800s, you would have seen no musk oxen. Precious few were left anywhere. The species had survived for millions of years -- had outlasted mighty predators -- until white human explorers discovered that musk ox meat was good to eat and easy to get with a gun. Suddenly, musk ox hides were all the rage back home, where they were used for lap robes. With massive massacres sponsored by the Hudson's Bay Company and American whalers, the musk oxen in North America nearly went the way of the American bison.
But if you visit Alaska today, you can see these amazing animals for yourself. If you're extremely lucky, you might glimpse them in the wild. But if you really want to see musk oxen (and learn more about them), your best bet is to visit the University of Alaska's Large Animal Research Station (LARS) in Fairbanks. This is a must-see for anybody who visits me during the summer, and nobody has ever been disappointed.
LARS encompasses 150 acres of boreal forest and fenced pastureland. It looks like a farm, with a farmhouse, a red barn and many outbuildings. It is home to approximately 75 musk oxen, the largest captive herd in the world. There are also herds of caribou and reindeer (domesticated caribou), as well as the only caribou-reindeer hybrids in the world. As part of the University's Institute of Arctic Biology, LARS is charged with studying these animals to determine how they succeed in their harsh environment. At any given time you can find university students, faculty, visiting scientists, high school students, Earthwatch participants and other volunteers, all conducting research on the large mammals.
The public is welcome year-round to view the herds from the platforms located around the periphery of the property. If this is all you plan to do, be sure to bring your field glasses, because the animals don't always come close. But if at all possible, visit during the summer months, when guided tours of the farm are offered several times during the week.
Musk Oxen Up Close
Bring your camera. In these tours, you can get very close to the animals. You'll be separated from them by only a fence -- and the guide will be inside. (With any luck, your guide will be a graduate student or volunteer. They have a lot of knowledge, plus a great deal of enthusiasm. If you get a staff guide, you might get more academic information than you really want. It's the luck of the draw, though.)
You can learn a lot by listening to the guides and asking questions. All the talking will probably bore your children, but I guarantee they'll be captivated by the antics of the animals -- especially the baby animals. (Okay, I admit it: I've wandered away from the lecture on occasion myself. Some of the speakers are better than others, and sometimes it’s just more interesting to watch the critters.)
Try to listen on your first visit, though. You'll hear an amazing story of an animal brought back from the edge of extinction, now flourishing, and even providing an important cottage industry for Native Alaskan women in remote villages.
Musk Ox History
All Alaskan musk oxen are descended from 34 animals captured in Greenland in 1930 and flown across the continent to Alaska's Nunivak Island. By 1968 there were 750 musk oxen on Nunivak Island, and the LARS herd originated with 16 of those animals brought to Fairbanks in 1964 to establish an experimental breeding program. This program was the first attempt to domesticate musk oxen and create a source of income for Native Alaskans from a Native Alaskan animal.
The Tour
The LARS tour starts at the viewing platform near the main gate on Yankovich Road. Visitors gather there to wait for the guide to open the gate and lead them down a dirt road to the pastures. First you'll be introduced to the musk oxen, most likely a couple of females and their calves. Don't be surprised to see neon orange or green paint splotches on their backs. This seems a little strange at first, but remember, you are visiting a research facility. Researchers use the paint markings to identify individual animals and family groups for their studies.
If you've ever seen a picture of a musk ox, the first thing you'll notice in real life is how small they are.
The Arctic tundra is a flat, treeless, arid environment. The winters are long, sunless and bitterly cold, and the barren landscapes are swept by fierce winds. The plants that do grow there -- grasses, sedges, shrubs -- have adapted by growing low to the ground, evolving into dwarf versions of themselves.
Against this featureless background, the musk ox appears deceptively large. From pictures, I had imagined them to be the size of a buffalo: about 6 feet tall, weighing about a ton. In reality, musk ox bulls are only about 5 feet tall at the shoulder hump and weigh only 800-900 pounds, while the females stand only 4 feet tall and weigh up to 600 pounds. The newborn calves are tiny, only 20 pounds. Walking among them, a human being seems to tower over the herd.
But don't let their size lull you into complacency. Musk oxen have notoriously grumpy dispositions. On their heads they carry a thick plate of horn that grows outward into two slightly curved, dangerously sharp, points. For most of the year, these animals "play" at head-butting, running dead-on into each other with heads lowered. The sound is a thundering crack, and you'd think nothing could survive such an impact. During mating season, the games turn deadly earnest as bulls vie to dominate a harem. I was amazed to see that even mother musk oxen will sometimes chase their own calves away from choice foods -- and when mama says "git," she means hoof it!
Musk oxen resemble a cross between a buffalo and a yak. They have the large shoulder hump and mane of the buffalo and the long hair of the yak. Their two-layered coat is one of the special adaptations that allow them to live in such an extreme environment. The outside coat is made of coarse guard hairs; these grow constantly throughout the animal's life and are as long as 16 inches. The outer coat hangs down low enough to obscure the legs, which are short and stocky.
Qiviut
The inner coat is dense and wooly, and it grows only part of the year. During the spring and summer months it is shed and works its way through the guard hairs to the surface, where it is brushed off against brush, rocks or ice. Called qiviut (kiv-ee-ut), this wool is gathered for spinning into fine yarn, which is then knitted into highly prized (and priced) scarves, hats, tunics and mittens by a cooperative of Native women from remote villages. This cooperative is called Oomingmak, the Native Alaskan name for the musk oxen. It means "the bearded one." Each village has its own trademark decorative pattern, so it is easy to tell where an item was made simply by looking at it.
An adult musk ox sheds approximately 6 pounds of qiviut each year -- enough to knit 50 scarves. Qiviut is ultra-light, extremely warm, and does not shrink when washed in any temperature. It is especially soft, rivaling cashmere, and does not itch. For this reason, a pound of qiviut is worth $175 or more. The yarn is always left undyed, and so qiviut items are a soft grey-brown that is beautiful with any color.
Ironically, it was one of the musk oxen's natural defense mechanisms that nearly doomed it to extinction. When threatened, the herd naturally forms a stationary line facing the predator -- or a circle facing outward, with the calves inside. This works well with their primary natural predator, wolves. But because the animals stand their ground and don't run, human beings were able to slaughter entire herds at a time.
After you've seen and heard about the musk oxen, you'll be taken to the opposite pasture to see the caribou and reindeer. You'll learn amazing things about them, too: For instance, the tendons in their feet click when they walk, so individual animals can keep in touch with the herd while grazing in bad weather with poor visibility. Willow branches are provided for the kids (and big kids like me) to feed these animals, who know the routine and come right up to the fence. Caribou are opposite to musk oxen in almost every way, so this is a good contrast to what you've heard before.
If you visit Alaska in the future, will there be any musk oxen left? This is one of the questions researchers are trying to answer. Global warming may eliminate a species that survived the Ice Age, powerful predators and slaughter by human beings. What effect would oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) have on musk oxen and caribou? Some of the caribou at LARS are descendants of the Porcupine Caribou herd, thought to be threatened by oil drilling in ANWR.
Tour Information
Tours are at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday during the summer months and on Saturdays at 1:30 p.m. during September. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $2 for students and free for children ages 6 and under. Call (907) 474-7207 for more information.
Update April 27, 2001: UAF today announced that LARS and its sister facility, the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer, Alaska, will be closed to visitors for the first time ever because of the threat of hoof and mouth disease. Because the musk oxen in Alaska are descended from such limited genetic stock, any outbreak of disease is potentially disastrous. If you're in Fairbanks, call the number below to check the status of the tours. I will try to come back and post when UAF re-opens the facilities to tourists.
Resources
For more information on LARS, visit http://www.mercury.bio.uaf/~lars.organization.
For pictures of musk oxen, visit http://www.muskoxfarm.org.
For information on Oomingmak, visit http://www.qiviut.com.
For information on qiviut and knitting patterns, visit http://www.higharctic.bc.ca/Fibre.html
Happy Earth Day! Remember, Earth Day is Every Day.
This review is part of an Earth Day write-off sponsored by teskue. Please take time to read the entries by the other participants: Viper1963, GinaHill, mtbat, mangiotto, taishan, sephiroth2000, Xiag, Gracenwilk, isinga, straightup and ed_grover. Thanks!
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wovengold
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Member: Kristin Summerlin
Location: Two Rivers, Alaska
Reviews written: 34
Trusted by: 45 members
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