They lived through the ice age. Can the mighty musk ox survive the heat?
By The Guardian.
Excerpt: Built like a small bison, weighing as much as a grand piano and covered in thick, shaggy coat, the musk ox is one of the most distinctive species in the high Arctic. ...Musk oxen are relics of the ice age, adapted to thrive in pitch-black polar winters where temperatures can stay below -20C (-4F) for months. They give birth as the light returns for the brief Arctic summer, ready to take advantage of the 24-hour grazing days before the light disappears once again. Often boxed in by ice and geography in isolated populations, they are among the world’s most inbred mammals. ...Officially, musk oxen are classified as a species of least concern on the IUCN red list of threatened species. But in a warming world, rising temperatures are posing new tests of their resilience, raising concern among scientists about the survival of many fragmented populations. Disease and parasites – turbocharged by the changing climate – are on the rise in much of the musk ox’s range. A 2020 study of the Canadian Arctic islands found that lungworms, which cause breathing difficulties and weakness, are increasing. Most worryingly, say researchers, is the spread of the Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae bacteria – a common infection in farm animals – which has high mortality rates among Arctic mammals. In the Canadian Arctic islands, the world’s largest musk ox populations have declined by more than half since the early 2000s, wiping out thousands of the mammals....