Editing Muskox (section)

== Range ==
[[File:Ovibos moschatus (fossil musk ox skull) (prehistoric; Siberia.jpg|thumb|Fossil ''Ovibos moschatus'' skull from prehistoric Siberia]]

=== Prehistory ===
During the [[Pleistocene]] period, muskoxen were much more widespread. Fossil evidence shows that they lived across the Siberian and North American Arctic, from the [[Urals]] to [[Greenland]].<ref name="Switek" /> The ancestors of today's muskoxen came across the [[Bering Land Bridge]] to North America between 200,000<ref name="WMAC" /> and 90,000 years ago.<ref name="HWW" /> During the [[Wisconsinan]], modern muskox thrived in the [[tundra]] south of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]], in what is now the [[Midwest]], the [[Appalachians]] and [[Virginia]], while distant relatives ''[[Bootherium]]'' and ''[[Euceratherium]]'' lived in the forests of the [[Southern United States]] and the western shrubland, respectively.<ref name="Wisconsinan Mammalian Faunas" /> Though they were always less common than other Ice Age megafauna, muskox abundance peaked during the [[Würm II glaciation]] 20,000 years ago and declined afterwards, especially during the [[Pleistocene]]/[[Holocene]] [[Quaternary extinction event|extinction event]], where its range was greatly reduced and only the populations in North America survived. The last known muskox population in Europe died out in [[Sweden]] 9,000 years ago.<ref name="Lent1999" /> In Asia, muskox persisted until just 615-555 BCE in [[Tumat]], [[Sakha Republic]].<ref name="Plasteeva">Plasteeva, N. A., Gasilin, V. V., Devjashin, M. M., & Kosintsev, P. A. (2020). Holocene Distribution and Extinction of Ungulates in Northern Eurasia. ''Biology Bulletin'', 47(8), 981-995.</ref>{{failed verification|date=August 2023}}

Following the disappearance of the [[Laurentide Ice Sheet]], the muskox gradually moved north across the [[Canadian Arctic Archipelago]], arriving in [[Greenland]] from [[Ellesmere Island]] at about 350 AD, during the late [[Holocene]]. Their arrival in northwestern Greenland probably occurred within a few hundred years of the arrival of the [[Dorset people|Dorset]] and [[Thule people|Thule]] cultures in the present-day [[Qaanaaq]] area. Human predation around Qaanaaq may have restricted muskoxen from moving down the west coast, and instead kept them confined to the northeastern fringes of the island.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0032247404004127 |title=New dates of musk-ox (''Ovibos moschatus'') remains from northwest Greenland |year=2005 |last1=Bennike |first1=Ole |last2=Andreasen |first2=Claus |journal=Polar Record |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=125–129 |bibcode=2005PoRec..41..125B |s2cid=128814689}}</ref>

=== Recent native range in North America ===
[[File:Muskoxen with mountains and rainbow sky in the distance.jpg|thumb|Muskox at [[Cape Krusenstern National Monument]], Alaska]]
[[File:Greenland-musk-ox hg.jpg|thumb|Muskox family in east [[Greenland]]]]
In modern times, muskoxen were restricted to the Arctic areas of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska. The [[Alaska]]n population was wiped out in the late 19th or early 20th century. Their depletion has been attributed to excessive hunting, but an adverse change in climate may have contributed.<ref name="AK_Muskox">{{cite web |first1=T. |last1=Smith |first2=J. |last2=Coady |first3=R. |last3=Kacyon |title=Muskox |year=2008 |url=http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/biggame/muskoxen.php |publisher=Alaska Department of Fish and Game |access-date=2017-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001122830/http://www.adfg.state.ak.us/pubs/notebook/biggame/muskoxen.php |archive-date=2009-10-01 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/gaar/naturescience/muskox-the-incredible-journey.htm |title=The Incredible Journey |publisher=Nps.gov |date=2010-12-28 |access-date=2011-03-03}}</ref> However, muskoxen have since been [[Reintroduction|reintroduced]] to Alaska. The [[United States Fish and Wildlife Service]] introduced the muskox onto [[Nunivak Island]] in 1935 to support [[Hunter-gatherer|subsistence]] living.<ref name="FWS" /> Other reintroduced populations are in [[Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]],<ref>https://www.fws.org/refuge/arctic/muskox.html{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> [[Bering Land Bridge National Preserve]], [[Yukon]]'s [[Ivvavik National Park]], a [[Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center|wildlife conservation center]] in [[Anchorage, Alaska|Anchorage]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.alaskawildlife.org/animals/musk-ox/ |title=Musk Ox – AWCC |access-date=11 October 2017 |archive-date=6 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210306155428/https://www.alaskawildlife.org/animals/musk-ox/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Aulavik National Park]] in [[Northwest Territories]], [[Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge]], [[Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve|Gates of the Arctic National Park]], and [[Whitehorse, Yukon]]'s wildlife preserve.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yukonwildlife.ca/animalshabitats/ouranimals/muskoxen/ |title=Yukon Wildlife Preserve. |website=www.yukonwildlife.ca}}</ref>

There have been at least two domestication endeavours. In the 1950s, an American researcher and adventurer was able to capture muskox calves in Northern Canada for relocation to a property he prepared in Vermont.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/farmer/pre2001/030400k1.html |title=University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives – Fingers and needles: Alaskan co-op turns cashmere-soft musk ox wool into hard cash |access-date=26 July 2007 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303191317/http://www.uwcc.wisc.edu/info/farmer/pre2001/030400k1.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>https://canadashistory.partica.online/canadas-history/the-beaver-summer-1964/flipbook/42/ {{dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Wild Animals of North America |author=National Geographic Society |date=1960 |page=105}}</ref> One condition imposed by the Canadian government was that he was not allowed to kill adults defending their young.  When nets and ropes proved useless, he and his crew herded family groups into open water, where calves were successfully separated from the adults.  Once airfreighted to Montreal and trucked to Vermont, the young animals habituated to the temperate conditions.  Although the calves thrived and grew to adulthood, parasite and disease resistance problems impaired the overall success of the effort.  The surviving herd was eventually moved to a farm in [[Palmer, Alaska]], where it has been successful since the mid-1950s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.muskoxfarm.org/ |title=Musk Ox Farm-Gently Hand-Combed Qiviut |website=Musk Ox Farm-Gently Hand-Combed Qiviut}}</ref>

=== Reintroductions in Eurasia ===
[[File:Muskox (Ovibos moschatus) male Dovrefjell 6.jpg|thumb|Male in [[Dovrefjell–Sunndalsfjella National Park]], Norway]]

In 1913, workers building a railway over [[Dovrefjell]] found two fossil muskox vertebrae. This led to the idea of introducing muskoxen to Norway from Greenland. The first release in the world was made on [[Gurskøya]], near [[Ålesund]], in 1925–26. They were muskoxen caught by Norwegian seal-hunting boats in Greenland. The animals colonized the island, but eventually died out there. An attempt to introduce the muskox to [[Svalbard]] also failed. Seventeen animals were released in 1929 by [[Adventfjorden]] on [[West Spitsbergen]]. In 1940, the herd numbered 50, but in the 1970s, the whole herd disappeared. In September 1932, polar researcher [[Adolf Hoel]] conducted another experiment, importing 10 muskoxen to Dovrefjell. This herd survived until [[World War II]], when they were hunted and exterminated. In 1947 and later, new animals were released. A small group of muskoxen from Dovrefjell migrated across the national border to Sweden in 1971 and established themselves in [[Härjedalen]], whereby a Swedish herd was established.{{citationneeded|date=October 2024}}

The Norwegian population on Dovrefjell is managed over an area of {{cvt|340|km2|sqmi}} and in the summer of 2012 consisted of approximately 300 animals. Since 1999, the population has mostly been increasing, but it suffered a measles outbreak in the summer of 2004 that killed 29. Some animals are also occasionally killed as a result of train collisions on the [[Dovre Railway]]. The population is divided into flocks in the {{ill|Nystuguhø|no|Nystugguhøa}} area, {{ill|Kolla (Norway)|lt=Kolla|no}} area and [[Hjerkinn]]. In the summer they move down towards [[Driva]], where there are lush grass pastures.

Although the muskox belongs to the dry Arctic grassland, it seems to do well on Dovrefjell. However, the pastures are marginal, with little grass available in winter (the muskox eats only plants, not lichen as reindeer do), and over time, [[inbreeding]] depression is expected in such a small population which originated from only a few introduced animals.

In addition to the population on Dovrefjell, the [[University of Tromsø]] had some animals on {{ill|Ryøya|de|Ryøy}} outside [[Tromsø]] until 2018.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Muskoxen were introduced to [[Svalbard]] in 1925–26 and 1929, but this population died out in the 1970s.<ref>Aulagnier, S. et al. (2008) Guide des mammifères d'Europe, d'Afrique du Nord et de Moyen-Orient. Delachaux et Niestlé, Paris</ref> They were also introduced in [[Iceland]] around 1930 but did not survive.<ref>Zabrodin, V.A., and G.D. Yakushkin. [http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/ah759e/AH759E19.htm "Chapter 10: Musk-Oxen."] From ''Animal Genetic Resources of the USSR'', edited by N.G Dmitriev and L.K Ernst. Rome: [[FAO]], 1989.</ref>

In [[Russia]], animals imported from Banks and Nunivak were released in the [[Taymyr Peninsula]] in 1974 and 1975, and some from Nunivak were released in [[Wrangel Island]] in 1975. Both locations are north of the [[Arctic Circle]]. By 2019 the population on Wrangel Island was about 1100,<ref name="muskoxRF">{{cite web |url=http://xn--90abjvq3cwb.xn--p1ai/i-chelovek/gde-v-rossii-mozhno-uvidet-ovcebyka |title=Where in Russia Can You See a Muskox? Overview of the habits and maintenance of muskoxen at the beginning of 2019 |language=ru}}</ref> and the Taymyr Peninsula, about 11,000–14,000.<ref name="автоссылка1">{{cite web |url=http://www.ohotcontrol.ru/documents/publication/2016/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D0%9F.%D0%9C.%20%D0%B8%20%D0%B4%D1%80.%20-%20%D0%A0%D0%B5%D0%B7%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8B%20%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F%20%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B1%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D0%B2%20%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9%20%D0%90%D1%80%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5%202016.pdf |title=II МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ, VII ВСЕРОССИЙСКАЯ НАУЧНО-ПРАКТИЧЕСКАЯ КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ "СОСТОЯНИЕ СРЕДЫ ОБИТАНИЯ И ФАУНА ОХОТНИЧЬИХ ЖИВОТНЫХ РОССИИ И СОПРЕДЕЛЬНЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЙ" |language=ru |website=www.ohotcontrol.ru |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209124141/http://www.ohotcontrol.ru/documents/publication/2016/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D0%9F.%D0%9C.%20%D0%B8%20%D0%B4%D1%80.%20-%20%D0%A0%D0%B5%D0%B7%D1%83%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8B%20%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F%20%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B1%D1%8B%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B2%20%D0%B2%20%D1%80%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9%20%D0%90%D1%80%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B5%202016.pdf |archive-date=9 December 2018 |trans-title=All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference "Condition of the Habitat and Fauna Hunting Animals of Russia and Adjacent Territories" |url-status=dead}}</ref> A few muskoxen herds migrated from the Taymyr Peninsula far to the south to the [[Putorana Plateau]].<ref name="muskoxRF" /> Once established, these populations have been, in turn, used as sources for further reintroductions in Siberia between 1996 and 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lhnet.org/reintroduction-of-musk-ox-in-the-northern-russia/ |title=Reintroduction of Musk Ox on the Northern Russia |last=Sipko |first=Taras |website=Large Herbivore Network |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905102942/http://www.lhnet.org/reintroduction-of-musk-ox-in-the-northern-russia/ |archive-date=2015-09-05 |url-status=dead |access-date=2017-12-21}}</ref> One of the last of these actions was the release of six animals within the [[Pleistocene Park]] project area in the [[Kolyma River]] in 2010, where a team of Russian scientists led by [[Sergey Zimov]] aims to prove that muskoxen, along with other [[Pleistocene megafauna]] that survived into the early [[Holocene]] in northern Siberia,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/131/1312936307.pdf |title=The North of Eastern Siberia: Refuge of Mammoth Fauna in Holocene |website=Rhino Resource Center |access-date=2020-04-11}}</ref> did not disappear from the region due to climate change, but because of human hunting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0517_050517_pleistocene.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050521020536/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0517_050517_pleistocene.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 May 2005 |title=Pleistocene Park Underway: Home for Reborn Mammoths? |work=nationalgeographic.com}}</ref>

=== Introductions in eastern Canada ===
Ancient muskox remains have never been found in [[eastern Canada]], although the ecological conditions in the northern [[Labrador Peninsula]] are suitable for them. In 1967, 14 animals were captured near [[Eureka, Nunavut|Eureka]] on [[Ellesmere Island]] by the Institute for Northern Agricultural Research (INAR) and brought to a farm in Old Fort Chimo [[Kuujjuaq]], northern Quebec, for domestication to provide a local cottage industry based on ''[[qiviut]]'', a fine natural fiber. The animals thrived and the ''qiviut'' industry showed early success with the training of Inuit knitters and marketing, but it soon became clear that the Quebec government had never intended that the muskoxen be domestic, but had used INAR to capture muskoxen to provide a wild population for hunting{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}. Government officials demanded that INAR leave Quebec and the farm be closed. Subsequently, 54 animals from the farm were released in three places in northern Quebec between 1973 and 1983, and the remaining were ceded to local [[zoo]]s. Between 1983 and 1986, the released animals increased from 148 to 290, at a rate of 25% per year, and by 2003, an estimated 1,400 muskoxen were in Quebec. Additionally, 112 adults and 25 calves were counted in the nearby [[Diana Island]] in 2005, having arrived there by their own means from the mainland. [[Vagrancy (biology)|Vagrant]] adults are sometimes spotted in [[Labrador]], though no herds have been observed in the region.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.canadianfieldnaturalist.ca/index.php/cfn/article/view/398/398 |title=The Occurrence of Muskoxen, Ovibos moschatus in Labrador – Chubbs – The Canadian Field-Naturalist |volume=121 |issue=1 |pages=81–84 |journal=Canadian Field-Naturalist |year=2007 |last1=Brazil |first1=J. |last2=Chubbs |first2=Tony E. |doi=10.22621/cfn.v121i1.398 |doi-access=free}}</ref>