As the largest land mammal in the polar region, the
musk ox (scientific name Ovibus moschatus) has the body and horns of a buffalo but has wool like a sheep.
As we'd done every night, we discussed politics and told personal stories, but all of it paled when the
musk ox were mentioned.
When I hunted
musk ox above the Arctic Circle almost 20 years ago, there was enough wind blowing to plaster the long hair against the big bull's body, revealing the contours of the shoulder, but many
musk ox get shot a little too low, because of the 18" of hair hanging below the chest.
Meanwhile, the Wildlife Conservation Society adds the Irrawaddy dolphin of Southeast Asia, the Arctic's
musk ox, the oceangoing hawksbill turtle and others to the list of species that are "feeling the heat" from global warming.
Materials from the Arctic include ivory, reindeer horn, sealskin, and
musk ox or caribou fur.
With survival gear and arctic weather-resistant tents, he headed to the permafrost of Canada's deadly tundra, inhabited by caribou,
musk ox, bears and deep snow.
And the long-haired, atavistic
musk ox, stolid in repose, were surprisingly graceful in uphill gallop.
His flat, condensed images make economical use of negative space and line to cleverly present zoological trails: The horns of an arctic
musk ox herd are formed by a series of brown arches adjacent to icy white squares and triangles; the eyes and claws of an owl descending on a teardrop-shaped field mouse emerge as Xs and Os from a midnight-black ground; a manatee is composed from two gray circles and two finlike triangles.
Chef Rene Redzepi, co-owner of Copenhagen's ground-breaking twostar Michelin restaurant Noma, which opened in 2003, has been pushing his fellow citizens to eat
musk ox served with apples and raw nettles, rather than McNuggets.
Meet the
musk ox, arctic fox, caribou and six other polar animals.
In North America, true horns grow on bison, wild sheep and
musk ox. The difference is that horns are permanent.