The Return of the Musk Ox HD

in ancient times herds of powerful animals roamed the open spaces of the Arctic they were undaunted by the cold successfully surviving the harsh conditions of the Ice Age nonetheless some 3,000 years ago nature dictated that they disappear completely from Eurasia who can say how long the icy planes would have remained empty had human beings not undertaken a bold experiment people intervened in the laws of nature and introduced 30 musk oxen to the Tamira Peninsula animals that had been brought from Canada and Alaska no one could have known back then for sure that the new settlers were actually capable of adapting to the conditions of the time ear thus restoring life that had long ago disappeared from the frozen territories of Eurasia how did the experiment turn out in order to be able to answer that question we accepted the challenge it posed and made our way to the land of the snowdrifts and winter gales to seek out the musk oxen there and to determine how they have fared in their new homeland we are on the fourth day of our journey the expedition has covered 300 kilometers after setting out from the village of hot Tonga and has reached Lake time moon this lake one of the Siberia's largest is situated in the centre of the peninsula that bears the same name we have to cross the lake in an easterly direction in order to reach the baccata River where the first musk oxen were at least 30 years ago no one has ever crossed the lake by motor vehicle before which meant that we had no inkling of the difficulties that awaited us at the end of winter the ice covering the surface of the lake is more than two metres thick which is enough to bear the weight of heavy trucks despite this snowdrifts and fissures blocked our way and slowed our progress to a crawl we had to leave the motors of the vehicles running all the time even while we slept 1/8 otherwise the motor oil would have frozen and it would have been very difficult to get the truck started again don't work at the end of April there are no more dark nights in the Thai meal and the polar day was about to begin so we could travel at all times of day depending on how the weather behaved we didn't reach the field camp until the ninth day of our travels having traversed 500 kilometres of unbelievably bad terrain the Hut was in good condition despite the fact that no one had been there for years these walls and this roof are going to provide us with sanctuary for many long months in the cold kingdom of the tundra we will be here on our own and no one can come to our aid quickly the timer is at the very northern most tip of Eurasia to a substantial extent it is constituted of tundra situated atop permafrost devoid of human presence due to the constant winds the wind chill temperature is even lower than the air temperature surviving under these conditions is very difficult economy my progeny women do not opt to Adama incredible natural process even in May winter continues to rain in the time moon everything is covered in glistening snow we have to start looking for musk oxen in this white world reminiscent at first glance of the desert we moved around in the tundra for days without finding a single musk ox on rare occasions we would encounter a rock fat army ants and hares in order to remain alive one has to be undetectable therefore the animals and birds became visible only when they started to move there's enough of other people on some clearings we came across musk ox droppings they were apparently from this season plainly in sight on top of the snow these fines gave us hope with each passing day we ventured further into the tundra making ever broader exploratory sweeps every time that we reach the top of a rise we hope to see musk oxen unfortunately they were nowhere to be seen perhaps there are so few of them here that meeting one would be an enormous stroke of luck the only location that we didn't make it to was the baranca foothills they were just too distant to reach on skis this left us no option but to clear the garage of snow and to undertake the long journey on the ancient snowmobile that it had housed for a long time as soon as we reach the foothills we saw what we have been looking for for so long they opposed my first novel is not a genic army valeera a committed visitor the herd was foraging on a sloping hillside and it would be impossible to approach it from across the clearing Marlina machine apart ready to best utilize Sumter your bikini let you go please get up little pathetic blizzard but plenty of Lisa when we had moved ahead a couple of hundred metres the oxen noticed us and gathered together just a few more steps and the herd made a run for it spreading quickly into the tundra this situation repeated itself again and again whenever we came across a new herd of animals still we managed to make one smaller herd assume a defensive formation in the shape of a circle the animal stand in a tight arc with their little ones situated inside the perimeter even wolves the only enemies that musk oxen have in these parts are incapable of penetrating these defenses this is the calving period ordinarily muskoxen give birth once every two years when they bear a single calf or on rare occasions to the little ones arrive in April at a time when the time it is still in the grip of bitter cold the best defense that muskoxen have against the cold and wind is their fur their long shaggy coats reminiscent of a cape and all the way to the ground reaching a length of 90 centimeters beneath the long course layer of outer hair there is a layer of finer under hair which is called the key view this is what protects the animals from going into hypothermia during the winter now the calendar summer has arrived in the time in it is the month of June today is the first day when the temperature has reached zero degrees the snow near our house has begun to melt and we hurry to shovel it away on polar flatlands the spring thaw proceeds at a furious pace the level of water in the river rises every day as though someone had thrown yeast in the water advancing ever closer to our quarters we were only off by a day in our calculations Nature has her own schedule and because of this the movement of the ice took us by surprise sir what are you up you are dealing tennesha Pangasius polo a layer of the freed by Nikki of dawn the snowmelt runoff period had begun the considerable spring flooding in the tundra interfered with our ability to move we were hemmed in by water and ice that imprisoned us cutting us off from the surrounding world all we could do was to observe the immediate area around the field camp and to get better acquainted with our new neighbors ichiro simian polarity suta multiple kidnappers we steer on the previous day there had been neither hide nor hero the musk oxen and now all of a sudden they appeared right by our house they were unperturbed by the field camp buildings the wire fencing the lay on the ground and the empty fuel tanks instead of taking their time to graze all of the animals hurried in one direction downstream along the river it was obvious that there was a purpose to their movement as it turned out the musk oxen were seeking what they had been deprived of all through the long winter that being salt instead of drinking water during the long winter they had been eating snow which had weakened their organisms at the estuary of the baccata there are natural salt deposits the animals are aware of their existence and consequently they are drawn there and in a particularly powerful fashion in the spring having satisfied their craving for salt the musk oxen leaved the salt deposits and settled down in the vicinity for arrests grown animals will ordinarily rest for more than an hour during this time they are not very alert and we were able to creep quite close to the resting herd on some occasions the restlessness of the youngsters doesn't enable them to stay put for as long as their elders do they have already built up their strength and try to check out the surrounding world of their own volition a year will pass before the young animals gain their independence for the first half year of their lives their mothers nursed them but they do eat other food as well sexual maturity doesn't arrive until the animals are 4 years of age these animals have quite a bit of growing to do first with luck musk oxen can live for as long as 20 years the flooding is over now and it becomes safe to travel on the river we wish to explore the headwaters of the baccata and to look for musk oxen they're the source of the baccata is high up in the mountains and is quite difficult to access the mountains have been hard to reach up until now and have not been explored to any significant extent which means that our journey will prove to be difficult moving upstream along the river we encountered small herds of musk oxen grazing on its banks musk oxen are not particular about what they eat and adapt easily to various combinations of plant growth they dine on the leaves of dwarf willow trees as well as various grasses and mosses with equal relish despite their dimensions the nature of musk oxen is more reminiscent of sheep than of cattle this is a rather large animal male specimens reach as much as 145 centimeters in height and weigh as much as 250 kilograms the females are about 1/4 smaller than the males what what during our trek of several days moving along the river the tundra changed before our eyes assuming a multicolored hue innumerable blossoms appeared on the banks of the river which heralded the coming of a new season the long-awaited summer had finally arrived in the northern region the beginning of the warm season marks the time when the musk oxen shed their fur they seek places where they can rub off the old fleece steep hillsides are suitable for this the youngsters imitate their elders and develop awareness of their bodies through this enjoyable activity for the musk oxen wrapped in their warm coats the summer with its heat is a trying time when the heat becomes unbearable they take a dip in the water or gather near patches of snow where they lounge for several hours fortunately the hot days in the time it don't last long everything can change in the blink of an eye extremes are ordinary here moving upstream along the river we reached the foothills of the baraja range the river became shallower and ever more frequently we were forced to portage as we explored the mountains we soon became convinced that these locations are excellent habitats for the musk oxen succulent grass is insufficient supply and there are fewer swampy areas it seemed as though the musk oxen prefer the mountains to level areas since we encountered them even near glaciers in the most inhospitable and isolated parts of the barangay on our way back we began to encounter herds of reindeer with increasing frequency soon one of the most magnificent displays of the time in wilderness is about to take place the reindeer appeared suddenly the animals moved in the tundra in a manner reminiscent of swarms of wild bees they approached this with no fear much like a living river that flowed through us and moved ahead in a peaceful manner it was just incredible we had never seen anything like this in our lives experts believe that a short lived gathering of animals of this kind is a regular annual event something that has developed during the evolutionary process it is during this time that the animals inform one another of the condition and status of the population through a complex set of signs according to the estimates of some scientists as many as a million reindeer moved through the time it in their search for something to eat that makes them the largest population of reindeer in the world in contrast to the nomadic reindeer musk oxen are stationary animals with a placid disposition they don't undertake long travels preferring to stay within the bounds of a given territory traversing short distances unlike the reindeer musk oxen don't form large herds summer herds are made up of ten to twenty animals of various ages and both genders you musk oxen have their own ways when danger threatens they don't run away but form a defensive circle this type of a defense strategy works well against wolves and cinematographers it is fatally flawed however when one is confronted by armed humans and almost led to the extinction of the musk oxen by the beginning of the 20th century musk oxen could only be found in Greenland and on the northern Canadian islands in Eurasia they had died out totally apparently as a result of climate change along with other fauna from the age of the mammoths in order to reintroduce musk oxen back to the locations they had once historically inhabited scientists decided to undertake an experiment in 1974 the first musk oxen were captured and settled in the time in no-one knew at the time how the newcomers would behave during the first years several animals perished several more managed to break out of enclosures but the main body of the herd survived and by the fourth year they were reproducing ten years later when the size of the herd consisted of one hundred animals they were released into the wild during 35 years of independent life in the time mirror the musk oxen have definitely succeeded in occupying an empty niche with each passing year their number grows having reached a total number of four to five thousand animals at the present now that it can be said that the experiment in the time it has been a success scientists are trying to settle animals into other areas of the Russian far north as well in September the days in the timer are short because of this the helicopter starts out on the expedition to trap musk oxen as early in the day as possible one has to make it back to the camp by dusk against the white background of the tundra the musk oxen are visible from far away dogs are released to keep the animals from escaping as soon as the dogs catch up with the herd it goes into a defensive huddle the herd is surrounded now everything depends on the person with a tranquilizer gun he has to pick out the youngsters born this year nestled amidst the dense wall of animals the young animals handled stress better than grown oxen and they are also easier to transport the tranquilizer starts to exert its influence once a few minutes have gone by and the calf settles onto the ground now it is important to disperse the herd quickly and to administer a counteragent for otherwise the youngster may perish it takes the scientists two days to catch 20 calves now that all the animals are in the transport container no time can be lost otherwise the stress they have to endure along with the cramped quarters may prove fatal to a flight to their new place of residence in Yakutia awaits them to the truly cold lands Yakutia is considered to be the coldest place not only in Russia but in all over the northern hemisphere this is where the climatic cold pole is situated where the temperature can fall to 70 degrees below zero centigrade there is only one place in the world that is even colder than this Antarctica severe cold can last as long as a month here ordinarily the median temperature in Yakutia during the winter is minus 40 degrees which the local residents and animals have grown accustomed to you know that for the muskoxen cold is not a problem that is why Yakutia became the first region in russia a decade ago where musk oxen from the time there were settled farms have been set up in Yakutia for the domestication of musk oxen the living diamonds of Yakutia farm operates in the taiga village of das ureic here 12 musk oxen are being tended to they have adapted well to their new living conditions and have produced the first generation of offspring a calf born in this farm is completely tame he accepts being stroked will eat from people's hands and displays no aggressiveness towards humans the grown-ups on the other hand don't tolerate such behavior because of his combativeness the tips of the horns of the dominant pole have been trimmed otherwise the lives of the farm workers would be in constant jeopardy the second half of August has rolled around fall has arrived in the time year this is the time of year when the musk oxen are at their most excitable the law of evolution is spurring them to reproduce the females in heat are ready to mate which puts the dominant male in a ferocious mood he's like a shepherd who is on guard corralling the cows to keep them from running off he drives off young bulls when the males are rutting and the females are in heat the herd remains essentially stationary in one place if the animals were to move there is the danger that the females might disperse and the herd would encounter wandering and males should such an encounter take place nonetheless a battle between the males is inevitable Oh all butting of heads is aimed at the base of the horns and the four part of the skull these are the most violent of all collisions of heads in the animal kingdom the upper section of the horns called the horn boss is like a shield that can be as thick as ten centimeters this is what keeps the musk oxen from getting concussions Saguna Doshi deutz-fahr waters clear my sumukha give Nia siddhim will be crucial music well the tide cutter boom lucious Postma true now the season has come when the tundra falls totally into the grip of winter tired of solitude and desolation we decided to take leave of the tundra while observing the musk oxen we became convinced that the experiment carried out by human beings intervening thereby in natural processes has gone successfully up until now and that musk oxen live once again on the wide-open snows faces of the time in in the not-too-distant future it should be possible to once again encounter the ancient animal king of this area the musk ox throughout all of northern Eurasia hopefully this will happen fairly soon and in the future people will not have to worry about the continued existence of these superb animals there are approximately 45,000 musk oxen in the world at the present 5,000 of them in Russia you

Channel: Vasiliy Sarana

Views: 481,771

Rating: 4.8081632 out of 5

Keywords: Wildlife, Wildlife films, Musk ox, Animals, Arctic, Tundra, Taimyr, Siberia, Travelling, Russia, Nature, Polar fox

Id: hamNdUp11t4

Length: 52min 34sec (3154 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2016