Muskoxen in Canada

Reports findings of Canadian Wildlife Service studies of muskoxen over 1951-61, with integration of results of other investigators who have worked in Canada and Greenland. Chapters cover the following topics: geographic distribution in the Arctic mainland and islands; the muskox environment, including climate, range topography, and soil characteristics; range vegetation, incorporating analyses of vegetation in the Fosheim Peninsula, Thelon Game Sanctuary, and Lake Hazen areas. Muskox food and feeding behaviour; muskox biology, including physical and physiological characteristics, life history, herd characteristics, social organization and behaviour, parasites and diseases, and mortality factors; adaptations to the Arctic environment; population regulation factors; economic importance of the species; history of the genus Ovibos, and variation in muskox subspecies. The appendix includes a paper considering the theoretical aspects of the intrinsic rate of natural increase of muskoxen.