Musk from Greenland

In winter, it is a dramatic sight, standing calmly in the snowstorm with their long, thick fur flapping in the wind, or lying on the ground partially covered in snow. You keep asking yourself: How do they manage to survive? (Hunter Ivar Ytreland)

As far back as I can remember, the musk ox has been an animal that has fascinated me. All the stories about "Hau-Peter" who caught live musk oxen and released them on the Brandalsfjella mountains were perhaps the explanation for this. Musk oxen. This densely populated aurochs with long hair and scary horns. Incredibly, it can actually swim very well. And few people beat it to speed in wild and steep rock piles. Away from the ground it is worse. Then it is reluctant to use its speed. The musk oxen are very heavy, and many trappers have told stories of musk oxen that have done somersaults at a wild trot away from the ground. An adult bull weighs between 300-400 kg and has a shoulder height of about 160. The cow weighs 2-300 kg and has a shoulder height of about 130 cm.

But there were many more than "Hau-Peter" who caught live musk oxen and took them out of Greenland. For a long period after 1900, it was quite common to go into Greenland and supplement the catch with musk oxen and other animals from this fascinating land.

From 1899 to 1969, it is reported that Norwegians brought about 300 live musk oxen into Norway.

The number is probably even higher since customs records and statistics from certain years are missing. In addition, foreign expeditions have brought 50 musk oxen from Greenland: Sweden 2 in 1900, Iceland 7 in 1929, Denmark 37 in the period 1900 to 1964 and the USA exported four calves from Claveringsfjorden to the New York Zoological Park in 1939.

It was the zoological parks around the world that made it so attractive to capture live musk calves. These parks paid very well for a live musk calf. The Tromsø ship "Søstrene" with skipper Ole I. Grødahl was the first to bring live musk from Greenland in 1899. These two musk calves were sold to the Duke of Bedford and released into his private zoo Woburn, in the south of England, and the price is said to have been 10.000 German marks. No wonder then that the brothers Peter S. and Ole S. Brandal were tempted to go to Greenland after a rather poor seal hunt in 1900. Ole S. Brandal says:

The spring of 1900 and the summer of 1900 were a rough year in the West Ice. Poor catch and bad weather. When the season was over, each boat had about 70 animals. I – who was used to doing well on a steamboat – was in a bad mood.

Then Peter and I met and consulted about heading west to Greenland. We were lying 70-75 degrees north latitude at the time. While we were discussing the question, a large steamboat came plowing from the east. They were easterners on a seal hunt. The boat was named "Samson" and the captain was named Samuelson. We got him to talk. He looked at our thirty-ton ships, "Havfruen" and "Minna," and thought they were frail vessels.

– Can we try and get to Greenland, do you think? We asked.

– I would strongly advise you against it, he replied.

Fridtjof Nansen asked the same thing, and I advised him. It is both full of currents and full of ice.

 But we thought it was no use scaring us. Then the guys pulled out the draft and showed that it was about 60 miles to Greenland. If we were still so bold as to set off, he would at least advise us to keep at 75 degrees the whole way. The current was more reasonable there.

Then we crossed inland. We hooked ourselves with dredges into large icebergs and the tail and pulled. After much toil for five whole weeks, we only had 2-3 miles left to Greenland. We could see open ridges along the land.

But don't you think he then arrived with a northwest storm that drove out after us and left us completely stranded. Then I said to Peter: Let me get two men from your ship, and I'll take two from mine. We'll equip ourselves with coffee, butter, breadcrumbs, wood and sails, take the fishing boat and try to get to land. It was put into action.

We pulled the boat across the ice and rowed in the small reefs we found. On the way I shot a harbor seal, so that in case of emergency we would have food, fuel and warmth. For two days we rowed and pulled in sections. Then the ice gradually opened up, and we were able to set foot on Greenland soil further north than any man had been before – on Claveringsøya. There we pulled the boat ashore, made coffee, capsized the boat and made ourselves a cabin. Then the guys could sleep. I myself went on watch.

I was now so tired that I was probably getting tired of it. But I took a walk up the mountain and shot two black-fronted geese. It might help with food if the weather was so bad that we had to stay a while.

But suddenly it eased out into the sea, and the ships came cruising. Then I got to go to bed while Peter cruised east along the coast. It was exciting. No one had been here before, so it was not good to know anything about shallows and banks.

But I hadn't slept long before Peter woke me up: – No, now you have to get up into the thicket, Ole. I see something alive inland. It looks like a house on the move! It must be a giant animal! We agreed to turn upland and go inland with a couple of boat teams. – We saw the animals through the binoculars about a mile and a half away. Gradually it became extremely difficult to walk, because there was such a mud soup. The fog came and went, and Peter and I disagreed about the way. The end of the show was that we parted ways.

As my team was about to cross a river, we heard shots from the others. I counted twenty, the whole charge – and immediately after that one of our guys shouted: – I hear a cry for help – – -!

Fortunately, it wasn't that bad. Not long after we met the others leaning.

– We came upon some huge animals that we have emptied the entire load into, said Peter, but they are standing there just the same. And it was true. When we got to the animals, they were standing on all fours, stone dead.

We knocked them over, skinned them, and took the heads with us. It was a long way, a mile and a half.

But when we got on board – we had to signal with the foghorn – because they had left the shore. Then they had also shot three animals of the same kind. We had no idea what kind of animal it was until we got home. None of us had seen Muskoxen before.

– We got a full load. Fifty-six muskoxen and a similar number of walrus and polar bear skins. In addition, we had 4-5 live muskoxen, one live walrus cub and ten live polar bear cubs.

We exhibited these animals in Godø's shop in Ålesund, and charged an entrance fee. There was a huge pilgrimage there.

In the newspapers the day after the exhibition, it was described this way:

It was interesting to see so much catch from a couple of small vessels, especially these rare muskies, and we believe that the exhibitors would have had many more visitors if the entrance had not been so full.

 

Musk oxen from "Minna" and "Havfruen" were reportedly sold to Antwerp, but only one calf was brought back alive. Whether this applies to all five or just some of them, we do not know.

In a letter to John Giæver at the Norwegian Polar Institute requesting the importation of musk oxen, Martin Karlsen wrote on March 22, 1948, that musk oxen from "Minna" and "Havfruen" were placed in a fenced area in Brandalsbygda in 1900, but the grass was too thick and they gradually died. No number is given of how many animals there were.

It is not mentioned in statistics that the two ships carried live musk oxen in the following years, but protocols from Peter S. Brandal's archive refer to the sale of musk oxen.

The Brandal people did not know about musk oxen until they arrived in Northeast Greenland in 1900.

Henry Hudson is usually credited with being the first to pass through the drift ice belt and see the coast of Northeast Greenland in 1607, while Douglas Charles Clavering was the first and only person to have seen any Eskimos on the East Coast north of 66⁰ N, a group of 12 pieces on the south side of Claveringsøya in 1823. None of them mention having seen musk. Around 1770, the Danish naturalist Otto Fabricius was in West Greenland. There he was handed some remnants of musk that had come with the drift ice from East Greenland. He did not know about the musk and therefore described the find as a yak-ox. The first reliable sources about musk oxen in Greenland were obtained in 1853 when Kane found several skeletons of musk oxen in North-West Greenland, and received several confirmations from Eskimos in the area who had seen live musk oxen there a few years before.

In 1869, when the second German North Pole expedition with the "Germania" and the "Hansa" set out to reach the North Pole along the coast of East Greenland, they saw musk oxen. They shot an enormous bull on Shannon Island on 16 August 1869, probably the first Europeans to shoot musk oxen in Greenland. The following year they were probably also the first Europeans to capture live musk oxen in Greenland, but without taking them back to Europe.

First Norwegians on musk deer hunt

The sealer "Hekla" with skipper Ragnvald Knudsen was the first to hunt musk deer in East Greenland. This was in the summer of 1889 when they sailed along the coast from Cape Hold with Hope to the north of Shannon Island. In addition to a good catch of 9 polar bears, 267 walruses, 220 kg of walrus teeth and several thousand seals, they delivered 24 musk deer to Hammerfest.

Trappers on the galeas "Søstrene" and the yacht "Spitsbergen" from Tromsø shot 79 and 69 musk oxen in East Greenland in the summer of 1899, and as mentioned before, "Søstrene" brought the first two live musk oxen home to Tromsø.

In 1900, a total of 13 musk oxen were captured and taken to Scandinavia. In addition to the 5 that the "Havfruen" and "Minna" had brought, the "Christianne" from Hammerfest with skipper Fredrik Olsen came in with a live musk ox, the "Sina" with skipper Jacob Johansen, also from Hammerfest, had one live one and the "Cecilie Malene" from Tromsø with skipper Ole Næsø had four live calves.

In addition to this, the Danish "Antarctic" expedition had captured a musk ox for the Copenhagen Zoo ("Bus" which died in 1906), and a Swedish zoological expedition with "Fritjof" had brought two musk oxen which were dragged into an enclosure at Boden in Norrbotten. One of them died after a short time due to blood poisoning after being injured during transport. The musk ox that "Christianne" had brought was sold to the Berlin Zoo, where it died on 20 April 1906.

Two Tromsø ships had 90 dead musk oxen, and three Hammerfest ships had a total of 87 dead musk oxen, while "Minna" and "Havfruen" had a total of 50.

These two ships are not mentioned several times in the statistics of imported live muskoxen. Peter S. Brandal, who stopped sailing the Arctic Ocean in 1911 (he then went ashore to run his companies), said in an interview with Sunnmørsposten in 1930 that he himself had shot 150 muskoxen and 152 polar bears in the 13 years he operated the Arctic Ocean.

In the years 1901, 1902 and 1903, "Anna" from Hammerfest had a live muskox every year. In 1903, "Laura" from Kristiania with skipper Jens J. Øien also had a muskox.

Then comes a stay until 1907 when "Laura" is back and has taken a live musk ox, and is accompanied by "Vesterisen" from Ålesund, skipper Peder Trandal, who also has a live musk ox. "Vesterisen" has one also in 1908 when Paul Lillenes also has one with the ship "Sjøblomsten.

"Vesterisen" then caught the first and only adult musk ox that has been taken home alive. This was sold to the Copenhagen Zoo. In 1910, "Laura" was listed with four musk oxen. Then there was a stay until 1919 when Jens J. Øien went from being skipper of "Laura" to leading "Polarbjørn" of Narvik, and caught four live musk oxen. "Johanna Schelderup", Bodø, also has four musk oxen this year, led by Johs. Antonsen, and "Sælbarden", Tjørvåg, with skipper Paul Lillenes has two calves.

From 1922 onwards, the live capture of muskoxen increased. This year, the "Kap Flora" with skipper Peder Andresen had six calves and the "Sælbarden" with skipper Paul Lillenes had seven. The two ships engaged in joint capture of live muskoxen and polar bears after the capercaillie hunt in the Strait had ended. A one-year-old and eight of these calves were sold to the USA. Zoological gardens in Philadelphia and Washington took over two each, and five went to New York. So did two almost two-year-old muskoxen from Schjelderup in 1921, and four one-year-olds from Tjørvåg in 1929.

What most of these captured calves had in common was that they died fairly quickly. Many died before they were sold, and many passed away within a few days or weeks of arriving at the various zoos.

In 1924, a provisional record was set for live muskox capture. "Orlando II" from Tromsø with skipper Oskar Grødahl brought home nine calves. "Quest" with skipper Ludolf Schjelderup, Skånland near Bodø, brought 11, "Sælbarden" now with skipper Ingebrigt Follestad had 11, and "Fangstmand" from Brandal with skipper Håkon J. Brandal brought 12 muskox calves.

The "Quest" calves were released on Skånlandsholmen south of Bodø, but they had trouble selling them. Only two of them were sold and ended up in a zoo in Halifax.

The 12 calves from the "Sælbarden" were caught on the south side of Claveringsfjorden, on Hudson Land. One of the challenges with exporting musk oxen was, of course, having food for them during the crossing home. The men on the "Sælbarden" more or less crawled over large areas of Hudson Land, each with his own knife, cutting grass. The grass fields in Greenland are not close together, and there was little, but in the end they managed to fill 16 sacks with grass. One of the men complained of his distress after returning home; he thought he would be on a great adventure when they went into Northeast Greenland, "instead I lay on all fours for several days tearing grass like another goat!"

One of the calves was particularly small and did not want grass. Although they tried to give it cow's milk, it died suddenly just off the coast of Møre. In addition to these 12 musk oxen, the "Sælbarden" also had 5 live polar bear cubs on deck. It was quite a busy crossing with 17 live animals on deck.

The world's first musk ox release

In the autumn of 1924, the 11 calves that remained from "Sælbarden" were placed on Kikholmen near Kjeldsund in Herøy, awaiting mating. The islet was located close to the channel, and is approximately 400×150 meters.

On the islet there was still a boathouse and an old barn left by people who had lived there until 1880. There was still a lot of grass growing on the islet. In the winter of 1924-25, five calves died on the islet. It was also said here that the musk ox could not tolerate the thick grass.

The sale of these musk oxen was not going well. In June 1925, the six musk oxen that were now left, three of each sex, were moved to Gurskøy and dragged up the mountain there. This was done to get them further away from where people lived and where the land was cultivated.

This can then be considered a release of muskox, and looking away from the few who were fenced off elsewhere awaiting sale, this was probably the world's first release of muskox. Food was good on the mountain ranges. But still, two of them came down from the mountain to graze a whole night in a meadow with fat grass in Dragsund. The two died soon after. Also the calves that "Sælbarden" had with him the following year, three muskox calves, were released first on Kikholmen, before they were moved to Gurskøy in June 1926. They stayed a lot in Sædalen, and it was later told that on Whitsun evening 1927 two cows were observed, each with a calf. On 28 August 1929, Aalesunds Avis wrote in an article that no one has seen the muskox again, and there is reason to believe that they are no longer alive. Other oral sources have said that the musk ox on Gurskøy did not disappear until World War II. The latter is probably less likely.

The bitter experience of so many dying so quickly made many buyers reluctant to buy the relatively expensive musk calves. When the ships brought a total of 43 musk calves that year, the supply also exceeded the demand. In addition, the Danish zoologist Adolf Jensen had succeeded in getting many zoos to say no to the purchase of musk calves.

At Brandal Stables, Peter S. Brandal raised 12-14 musk calves for a whole year before they were sold to various foreign zoos. This is according to a publication from 1930. These must be the animals that "Fangstmand" brought home in 1924.

In 1925, "Sælbarden" with skipper Follestad came home with three calves, and "Malula" from Haugesund with skipper Bertel Chr. Landmark had one.

In 1926, "Heimland I" from Tromsø with skipper L. Jakobsen was the only one registered with two muskets.

In 1927, the Brandal ships "Lysningen", skipper Sigvald S. Brandal, "Aarvak", skipper Johan S. Brandal, and "Polarhavet" with skipper Peder EP Brandal, caught and brought home two live musk oxen.

According to the letter from Karlsen to the Norwegian Polar Institute by John Giæver, these two calves were placed up in the valley in Brandal, close to a Sæterstøl. A larger enclosure was set up, and an earthen hut was built for the musk oxen. This was in the month of August and it seemed for a long time that the animals were thriving. Unfortunately, one died in the winter and it must have been lonely for the one that was left. There was a lot of snow that winter, writes Karlsen, and the other calf came down to the village and found its way to a sheepfold and greeted the sheep there. Karlsen further writes that the musk oxen were quite tame and he absolutely believes that it would be possible to tame these animals. He also says that this calf was sold because they did not want one left alone in the Brandalsfjella mountains. Another source states that this calf was sold to Italy where it arrived at a zoo in Rome on December 7, and lived there until July 15, 1928.

In 1928, the "Derningen" from Tromsø was the only one to bring musk oxen, two of them, while in 1929 three ships stopped by to catch live musk oxen. "Kap Flora" with skipper Peder Endresen, "Sælbarden" with skipper Paul Lillenes and "Veslekari" with skipper Hans Rekdal had a total of 28 live calves home. 26 of the calves survived the crossing and were released on Lilleneset in Tjørvåg awaiting sale. Zoological gardens in Helsinki, Edinburgh, Washington, and Philadelphia bought two each, and four went to New York. Adolf Hoel, who was then head of the Norwegian Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Research Institute (today the Norwegian Polar Institute), bought the remaining 18 musk oxen, which were taken with "Veslekari" and released in Adventfjorden in Svalbard. There were both political and economic reasons for this, but it was also expected that musk oxen could become a new game to hunt in Svalbard. Musk oxen from this strain could be seen in Svalbard until the late 1970s.

In 1930, "Veslekari" with eight muskies, "Gugnir" with skipper OM Tokle had 16. "Enos", skipper Ole Rødseth, and "Sælbarden", skipper Osvald Lillenes had a combined catch of 35 muskies.

This year, the musk ox was captured on order for the USA. 34 musk oxen were transported from Tjørvåg to Bergen on the "Enos". On 6 September, the "Bergensfjord" left Bergen with the animals in their crates, bound for New York. After 33 days of quarantine, they were sent by train across the USA to Seattle, then by boat to Seward in Alaska, and another train journey to the research base in College, where they arrived on 4 November. The Americans' intention was to preserve a species that they believed was threatened with extinction, as well as to try to domesticate musk oxen. In 1936, 24 of these who had survived and their seven descendants were released on Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea. By 1968, the number of this herd had risen to 750 animals, and has further given rise to new wild herds in Alaska and Siberia.

In 1931, the Arctic ship "Pil" from Hjørungavåg with skipper BH Olsvik caught 10, "Polarbjørn" with skipper Kristoffer Marø had two and "Veslemari" skipper Peder Andresen had 14 musk oxen.

The 14 animals from "Veslemari" were placed in Petter Smådal's sea shed on Leinøy awaiting sale. The "Polarbjørn" animals were placed in a drafty warehouse on Brandal.

The sale went well, and four of these musk oxen from 1931 ("Polarbjørn" and "Veslemari") were fed until the beginning of October 1932 when they were sent with "Glimt" to Åndalsnes for further transport to Dovrefjell where they were released into the wild.

The reason for the attempt to release musk oxen in Dovre was partly that during work on Dovrebana, workers had found many musk oxen bones from before the last ice age, and a woman then had the idea to return the animal to the area.

It had also become very difficult to sell musk oxen abroad at this time. The zoos had had a bad experience with many dying relatively quickly, and the prices had been high.

When "Pil" went directly to Cape Herchel in 1931 without fishing for humpback whales first, it was to try the luck of salmon fishing. This was a privately financed trial trip under the name Østgrønlanske Fiskekompani A/L. Behind the company was fishmonger Karl Røbekk and skippers BH Olsvik and Berntsen. They did not catch any salmon, and they then caught live musk oxen to try to salvage some of the trip. The "Pil" crew also had difficulty getting a sale on the musk oxen, and they were left standing on Røbekk's property at Åsestranda near Ålesund over the winter. In January, there were seven musk oxen left, which they then offered to the Ministry of Agriculture. After much discussion, these were also gradually transported to Dovrefjell in the spring of 1932.

"Isbjørn" is the only ship to have reported muskoxen in 1932 with six muskoxen captured. Skipper was Albert Bergesen. Four of these calves remain in Swope Park in Kansas City, USA.

After this there is a five-year hiatus before "Polarbjørn" is largely alone in catching live muskox in the years to come, but with a hiatus during World War II. Incidentally, there was also a hiatus during World War I. Odd Vollan writes in "Ishavsfart" that due to good times and good catching years in the West Ice, this supplementary catch in Greenland ended for a period, but when the war ended, it gained importance again.

"Polar Bear" captured two musk oxen in both 1938 and 1939. These were captured to be released on Dovrefjell.

The musk oxen thrived and multiplied on Dovrefjell. But by the time World War II was over, the herd was gone. It was claimed that the Germans, who were then stationed nearby during the war years, had exterminated the herd. Later investigations rejected this. True enough, they shot two musk oxen, but it was probably the Norwegians who took out the majority, and a large avalanche killed five.

In 1947, the "Polar Bear" caught eight muskoxen and in 1948, 10 were caught. The skipper for these four years was Kristoffer Marø. 10 of these were caught for release at Dovrefjell, eight in -47 and two in -48. The company Arktisk Næringsdrift AS was behind this release, with support from the state. The work with the release of muskoxen in the years 1947-49 and 1952-53 was led by John Giæver.

Eight of the musk oxen "Polarbjørn" had in 1948 were released at Bardufoss. Here too, Arktisk Næringsdrift was behind the release. Initially, it was intended that all the calves from 1948 would go to Dovre, but there were strong desires from the north to also establish a musk oxen herd there for meat production. The animals stayed mostly in the mountains around Hjerttind in Troms. Some of these are also said to have migrated into northern Sweden. There are no reliable sources on how long this herd lived, but there is reason to believe that the last ones lived until the beginning of the 1960s.

In 1949, "Quest" was the only one to catch musk deer with four musk deer, before "Polarbjørn" (no. 2) was the only one through the first half of the 1950s. During this period, they caught a total of 15 musk deer calves with skipper Henrik Marø. These musk deer calves were also released on Dovrefjell. It is the lineage of those caught in the periods 1947 to 1953 that still lives on Dovrefjell today.

In the summer of 1971, a small herd of five animals migrated out of Dovrefjell and settled in Härjedalen in Sweden.

Then there is a long stay until 1969 when "Harmoni" and skipper John Jakobsen have caught 25 live musk oxen as the last ship in live capture. These calves were going to Bardu and were intended for musk ox farming. Due to illness, the attempt was abandoned.

Of the approximately 300 live musk oxen exported from North-East Greenland, 155 were sold to zoos and animal parks. (Some of these died in Norway before export). 70 musk oxen were to be used in domestication experiments (four to Sweden in 1900, seven to Iceland in 1930, 34 to Alaska in 1930, 25 to Bardu in 1969), 75 were introduced to be released into the Norwegian wild, or the result of the transfer was that they were released (nine to Gurskøy in 1925-26, 17 to Svalbard in 1929, 39 to Dovrefjell in 1932, 1938 and 1949-53 and eight to Bardu in 1948).

In addition, we know that foreigners have exported at least 50 live muskoxen from Greenland: Sweden two in 1900, Iceland seven in 1929, Denmark 37 in the period 1900-1964, and the four calves to the USA in 1939.

When "Anni I" disappeared on the return trip from Nordaust-Greenland with winterers on board in 1923, there were also seven live muskox calves on board. Estimates also suggest that around 50 captured muskies died on the crossing to Norway.

In 1964, 27 live musk oxen were also captured in North-East Greenland and transferred to Søndre Strømsfjord in West Greenland. This population now numbers several thousand animals.

High pay made musk deer hunting attractive

The great interest in capturing live musk oxen was naturally the good prices they could get from zoos, and not least from foreign rich people with private zoos.

In 1900, a buyer in Sweden paid 9.200 kroner for four calves he bought in Tromsø. The Copenhagen Zoo paid 3.000 kroner for a cow calf bought in Tromsø in 1903. The New York Zoological Park paid 2.200 dollars for two two-year-olds from Skånland in 1921 and 4.400 dollars for five musk oxen from Sunnmøre in 1922. The 10 animals captured for release in Svalbard in 1929 were paid 12.000 kroner.

Peter S. Brandal states in 1900 that he was paid 15,- kroner per barrel of seal blubber, (987,- kroner in 2016 value), and 25-27 øre per kilo of sealskin. No wonder then that there was a temptation to catch live muskox in the following years when one could get 3.000,- for a muskox. (197.454,- kroner in 2016 value).

In addition to the live capture, a lot of muskox was shot. To capture the calves, it was often common to shoot the adult animals in the herd. Several sources estimate three to four adult animals shot per captured calf. These shot animals went into the meat supply in the provisions on the ships, or were salted in barrels and taken home by the crew, in addition they often shot even more muskox for meat and skin and took home. A survey in 1945 estimates this capture to be just over 3000 muskox.

Biggest musk deer hunt for winterers

The ships that stopped in North-East Greenland for supplementary hunting hunted some muskox. But it was the hunters who were overwintering who accounted for the bulk of the muskox hunting. They had a great need for fresh meat, and not least food for their dogs. Various sources have attempted to provide a summary of this hunt up to and including 1939. Ejnar Mikkelsen has obtained figures from the East Greenland watchdog and gives 1130 muskox shot for the 1938-1939 season, and 3110 animals for the period 1936-39. Mikkelsen, Giæver (1939) and Lønø (1964) have all come up with a figure of between 10-13000 muskox shot by overwintering hunters up to the autumn of 1939.

From around 1930 onwards, there were several people who made a fuss about having the musk in Nordaust-Greenland protected, in whole or in part. The winterers themselves protested and claimed there was plenty of musk and protection was not necessary. Furthermore, these winterers did not take out more musk than they needed for food for themselves and the bees. Some Arctic sea skippers also thought that there were enough restrictions for them as it was not allowed to salt or freeze muskox for sail.

While Canada completely protected musk deer in 1917, it was not until 1950 that the Danes decided to limit musk deer hunting in East Greenland. As is well known, the whole of North-East Greenland was designated a national park in 1974, which also meant total protection of musk deer.

While the population has grown well in Alaska, West Greenland and Taimyr, the population on Dovrefjell has grown less. There are several reasons for this, but many have been taken by avalanches, hit by trains, killed by lightning strikes and others have wandered out and been killed immediately.

In the autumn of 2006, the count at Dovrefjell showed 200 musk oxen and 60 calves. The number of musk oxen at Dovrefjell has been fairly stable at 250 over the past 10 years, after the population grew considerably after the 1990s. In recent years, about 50 calves have been born annually at Dovrefjell.

The musk ox from Greenland was adapted to an environment free of disease and parasites. The animals at Dovre have therefore had little resistance to diseases that can be transmitted from livestock, wild reindeer and deer. In recent years there have been several outbreaks of foot and mouth disease and pneumonia. Young animals in particular have been affected.

The musk ox is actually a type of sheep, related to sheep and goat, and the fine quality of the meat is dark but marbled with a mild and faint gamey flavor. It can be reminiscent of a cross between beef and sheep. At the Ishavsmuseet we have been lucky enough to have been able to serve musk ox steak a few times to a packed café.

 

Sources:

The Ishavsmuseet's archive, various documents and correspondence

Ivar Ytreland, "Polar Memories"

Hermann Bakke "Musk Hunting in East Greenland" Isflaket no. 3-2002

Sigmund Bøe, Sailing with Polarstar, "On rocking ground", Ishavsmuseet 1990

John Giæver, Norwegian fishing activities in East Greenland, 1939

Adolf Hoel, Muskoxen to Svalbard, 1929

Gunnar Isachsen, Norwegian trappers' voyages to Greenland, 1919-1921

Isachsen & Isachsen, Norwegian trappers and fishermen's voyages to Greenland 1922-1931.

Odd Lønø in the Polar Book 1963-64

Odd Vollan, Arctic Shipping

Norwegian Fisherman's Journal 1901, 1909, 1925

Sunnmørsposten 1908, 1947

Søndmøre Folketidende 1900

Sunnmøre Workers' Newspaper 1977