Rising temperatures are pushing these Arctic mammals ever farther into Greenland’s north. But eventually there will be nowhere left for them to go The age of extinction is supported by About this content Thu 26 Dec 2024 00.00 EST 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. But from a hill on Greenland’s tundra, they seem impossible to find. Each bush, rock and clump of grass resembles a mass of wool and horns in the blustery chill on the edge of the island’s enormous polar ice cap. Scanning the shimmering landscape with binoculars, Chris Sørensen looks for signs of movement. “See that black dot over there in the orange grass? That could be one,” says the station manager at Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (Kiss), shuffling back towards his car. “But it could also be a rock,” he says. As we approach the dot, it quickly becomes clear that it is, unfortunately, a rock. 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 . Musk oxen at Zackenberg research station in north-east Greenland. The animals provide a vital food and economic resource for Indigenous communities. Photograph: Lars Holst Hansen/Aarhus University/via CAFF More than 20,000 musk oxen live around Kangerlussuaq at the end of a 120-mile fjord, which was once home to Greenland’s main international airport – […]