Musk oxen are the only modern representatives of the same genus in the world. Belong to the family of bovine animals. The distant ancestors of these creatures lived at the end of the Miocene era, inhabiting the highlands of modern Central Asia. Let's talk about this amazing animal in more detail and find out what the musk ox eats, where it lives, how it looks and why it was called the musk ox.
At the origins of being …
The ancient ancestors of the musk ox existed at the end of the Miocene. Their favorite habitats at that time were mountains located on the territory of modern Central Asia. Of course, paleontologists are not interested in what the musk ox eats in nature and in captivity, but how it was able to spread relatively quickly in completely uncharted territories.
It is indecently simple. About 3.5 million years ago, the climate on our planet began to change: the cold came. Especially strongly they were felt in the highlands. This forced the ancestors of modern musk ox to descend from the Himalayas and to breed throughout modern Siberia and northern Eurasia. We will talk about this in more detail a little later.
When the Illinois glaciation came, these large creatures entered North America, and they crossed the Bering Isthmus. Then they settled throughout Greenland. What does the musk ox eat today and what did it eat at that time? It is worth saying here that in the late Pleistocene a sharp decrease in the number of these animals began. Do you think this is due to lack of food? No! This is directly caused by global warming. Note that musk oxen along with reindeer are the only mammals living in the Arctic that were able to survive the late Pleistocene era.
So, now we are gradually getting closer to the modern life of these horned beauties. Let's find out what the musk ox eats, how it looks and where it lives.
How do they look?
Their entire appearance was completely adapted for life in harsh Arctic conditions. Today they can be found in the Arctic only in small quantities. These furry giants are completely covered with thick and long hair of a rough character. The undercoat, by contrast, is soft and silky. It perfectly protects the animal from the cold. It is thanks to him that musk oxen do not freeze on polar nights in the northern regions of our planet.
Musk oxen have huge and rounded hooves designed for easy movement in the snow. On their back they have a hump-neck, located in the shoulder area and turning into a narrow back. The head is massive and elongated. On it are sharp and rounded horns with a large base. Males have, of course, much larger and more powerful horns than females.
Where do they live?
Are you curious to know what a musk ox eats? Be patient, you will find out soon! So these animals are quite massive creatures. Their height at the withers ranges from 1.5 to 2 meters! Where can such giants live? As we have already noticed, they originally inhabited Central Asia, but after that they went west to modern England and France and east to Siberia.
In Eurasia, at the present time you will not meet them either, since there they have already died out. They were almost completely exterminated in America: Eskimo hunters, as well as fur traders, had their hand in this. More recently, animals lived in large numbers in the Arctic, but now there are very few of them left.
Where else do muskoxes live?
In 1936 they were brought to the island of Nanivak, and in 1969 to the island of Nelson, located in the Bering Sea, and to the reserve in northeast Alaska. It is there that mainly the musk ox live today: about 800 individuals trample the land of Alaska, about 3, 000 live in the northeast of Greenland, and more than 14, 000 live in East Greenland. In addition, 1, 500 animals live in Canada and about 200 live on Svalbard.
What does the musk ox eat?
In the Arctic, as you know, there’s nothing special to profit from. But musk oxen, like all cattle, are herbivores. At the heart of their diet are certain herbs, for example, sedge or willow. In the course of their evolution, these creatures managed to deftly adapt to the difficult and even scarce forage lands of the tundra. Summer here lasts only a few weeks, so the horned people spend the lion's share of their boring life eating dry plants under the snow. That's what the musk ox eats!
You can find herbs in the tundra if you try hard. Musk oxen are engaged in this: they intensively dig snow in search of rhizomes and stems. And before the period of their active driving (breeding instinct) begins, in snowless times they try to visit natural salt licks to get all the necessary micro and macro elements.
