Hobbies And Interests
Musk Ox
Musk oxen weigh between 500 and 900 lbs. and are 3 to 5 feet tall. Their long, thick brown shaggy coats keep them warm in winter. Their broad, flat horns are plastered to their skulls which are like heavy armor. It's estimated that a musk ox bull's ram is equivalent to a car driving into a concrete wall at 17 mph. When threatened by predators, herds form impenetrable rings with their young inside. Females calf every other year. Musk oxen eat a wide variety of plants including grasses, sedges, forbes and woody plants but one of their favorite foods is willow.
Caribou
Caribou are grayish-brown members of the deer family, resembling large mule deer or small elk. They weigh 500 lbs. or more. Their thick coats with hollow hairs shed water and snow and trap heat close to their bodies in the winter. Ninety-seven to 99 percent of Alaskan females sport antlers like the males. Caribou's shovel-like hooves dig through snow for grasses and lichen. Their two circulation systems minimize heat loss with circulation in their legs being up to 50 percent colder than elsewhere in their bodies. Herds of thousands move across the tundra to inland forests as winter approaches.
Arctic Hare
Arctic hare don't hibernate. They survive the winter and dangerous cold with a number of behavioral and physiological adaptations. Their bluish-gray fur, which approximates rocks and vegetation in the summer, turns snow white for winter camouflage. Their low surface-area-to-volume ratio that conserves body heat is most evident in their shortened ears. They sometimes dig shelters in the snow, huddling together to share warmth. Occasionally loners, they can be found in groups of dozens, hundreds and even thousands. They disperse during mating season. Offspring resemble their parents by September and breed the following year.
Lemming
Lemmings are brown and gray mouse-like rodents with short ears, short legs and short tails. Their coats turn solid white in winter. Before snowfall, they build large, ground-level globular nests of finely shredded sedges and grasses. They forage winter-long under the insulating snow, hardly ever appearing on the surface. Their front feet develop two greatly enlarged claws, presumably aiding their foraging through frozen items. For unknown reasons, their numbers plummet to near extinction every four years or so, according to "Hinterland's Who's Who." An important food source for ermines, arctic foxes, snowy owls, Gyrfalcons and jaegers, the lemming's mysterious population cycle controls the rhythm of animal life on the tundra.