THE MUSK OX

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 45, 17 November 1936, Page 10

THE MUSK OX

Its Rapid Extinction PLEA FOR PROTECTION Denmark has such an admirable record in preserving her Eskimos from the disasters which civilisation has brought to other primitive races that it is surprising to find that the musk ox, the most distinctive and primitive animal of Greenland, should appear to be .threatened with extermination, wrote Lord Moyne in “The Times” recently. If an Eskimo kills a musk ox except under special necessity he is liable to a fine of 10 kroner, about a twentieth of his average yearly income. In spite, however, of many representations from zoologists there is no law against their slaughter by Europeans, and this Is due doubtless to the Danish Government fearing that the protection of the musk ox would cause friction with the Norwegians. The difficulty dates from the treaty of 1924 between Denmark and Norway, under which certain rights were conceded to settle a long-standing controversy with regard to Norwegian sealers. In consequence of this agreement some few Danish and Norwegian hunters are scattered southward along the coast from 75deg. N. Lat., about which, in ordinary years, it is possible for suitable ships to force their way through the floe ice. The musk ox is now extinct except for about one-fifth of the Greenland coast from Cape May in the north to Scoresliy Sound half-way down the east coast. During a recent visit to Greenland I saw numberless, tracks and bones when I landed on the north of this great inlet. Captain Ejnar Mikkelsen, tlie explorer of the East Greenland coast, now inspector of East Greenland, estimates the number of musk oxen as 11,000. Hemmed in along the narrow coastal range between the ice cap and the sea, they are so easy and profitable to kill that they are inevitably doomed to extinction unless Government protection is afforded. The tactics of a herd when attacked are to form a circle and to put the calves inside. This may be effective against bears or wolves, but is fatal against firearms. It would only bo necessary for a few more people to be tempted by the profit offered by large-scale slaughter for meat or in connection with selling calves to zoological gardens and others, to bring about complete extermination of the stock surviving in this narrow area. How quickly such destruction might take place may be judged from the figure of 37.000 which Mr. Jensen, Professor of Zoology in the University of Copenhagen, has quoted for thp slaughter of the much shyer reindeer in Greenland in one particular year.

Apart from Greenland, the musk ox which formerly ranged throughout the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, now survives only in small numbers in Arctie Canada, where it is rigidly protected by the Government. Having exterminated them in Alaska the United States Govrenmnt is trying to re-estab-lish them by the purchase of about 40 calves from Norwegians who caught them in Greenland to fulfil this official American request, destroying whole herds in efforts to capture calves for this order. Hunters are estimated to be killing at tbe rate of 500 animals a year. The carcases are salted down by the sealers for consumption in Norway, used as food for dogs, or left out as bait to draw foxes for trapping. Norway has no responsibility for the Government of Greenland and there can be no valid claim for a handful of her people to exploit this licence for destruction. It is understood that the Greenland Treaty reserves power to Denmark to declare protection for species which are endangered.