Muskox in Alberta

[James M]

Anyone see this pic on Andrew Lake Lodge's facebook page?



The caption:

"Muskox in Alberta!!!

This may be the first Muskox ever in the province of Alberta!!!

Photo was taken at Andrew Lake Lodge's outpost camp at North Leland Lake, by camp manager Kevin Wood on June 10, 2012.

North Leland Lake is 30 miles east of Fort Smith and stretches across the Alberta/NWT border. Our North Leland Lake Outpost camp is located 5 miles south of the Northwest Territory border.

The "Arctic Animal" is rarely seen in the sub arctic and to our research has never been seen in Alberta. Their range includes the arctic coast and Barren lands of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

When first spotted in the heavy cover of trees first inclination was to think - Moose? . Then as it made its way through the trees it looked more like a Wild Bison? As it stepped out into the open - WOW a MUSKOX!

This photo was taken just behind the guest cabins.

The Muskox put quite a show on as it was seen on two different occasions that day and even charged the camp dog!

More pictures and Video to follow.

We see Muskox regularly at our Lynx Tundra Lodge on Lynx Lake, NWT. This is a location on the edge of the treeline nearly 500km north of Leland Lake!

We are excited by this discovery and
are researching to see what the history of Muskox this far south is. Anyone with facts please let us know.

Thank you.

Dan Wettlaufer

Andrew Lake Lodge & Camps"

[avb3]

If it is not with a herd, I am surprised it has survived wolves. Big looking critter though. Don't think they are considered as a big game animal (I just checked the Queen's Printer, it is not even listed as anything), so I imagine it would be legal to hunt it.

[Big Bull]

I'm hoping that one will wander into our moose hunting camp this fall(not far from Leland)!

[rielbowhunter]

Thats cool

[brownbomber]

that's really cool, i wonder if he feels a little off lol. like the other poster said on his own he's lucky to still be toes on the ground

[Elkhunt]

Kind of looks long in the tooth...but I don't have any experience with age guessing these animals. Wonder if they go solo as the bulls get old, like Bison?

[Big Daddy Badger]

Lets get some more and see if they'll take.

That would be awesome.

Originally Posted by Elkhunt

Kind of looks long in the tooth...but I don't have any experience with age guessing these animals. Wonder if they go solo as the bulls get old, like Bison?

Just a youngster I'd say. Pretty cool and man is he lost!

[Steven Noel]

Took a wrong turn at Tuk perhaps?

[pottymouth]

That's pretty cool !

Alberta's economy I guess is getting everyone and thing migrating here! lol, I do hope some dalls and stones find there way here! lol

[Bigwoodsman]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

Just a youngster I'd say. Pretty cool and man is he lost!

x2

BW

[IHUNT]

Thats awsome!! Wish i was there to take some pics of him.

[westren]

FANTASTIC////// love to see one close up like that and in the trees to boot even if he is lost...

[rem338win]

Originally Posted by avb3

If it is not with a herd, I am surprised it has survived wolves. Big looking critter though. Don't think they are considered as a big game animal (I just checked the Queen's Printer, it is not even listed as anything), so I imagine it would be legal to hunt it.

Actually if it isn't listed then it's protected. Get caught with that and you are in trouble, never mind let the thing be.

[ishootbambi]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

Just a youngster I'd say. Pretty cool and man is he lost!

i wont pretend to know a ton about them things, but from what i do know about animals with horns like that, they grow a boss on top of the head where the horns will nearly touch as they get older. horns that far apart say young bull to me as well, but as i said....im no musk ox authority.

tundra monkey....what do you think?

edit....this post doesnt seem worthy of the 7k milestone. so lets add this.......

[Big Bull]

There was a blurb about it on Global Edmonton tonight. You should see some of the comments on the Global Edmonton Facebook page!

[avb3]

Originally Posted by rem338win

Actually if it isn't listed then it's protected. Get caught with that and you are in trouble, never mind let the thing be.

You may be right. Is that because it is not prescribed as any kind of wildlife or is there a different section of the Act/Regs that impact this? I looked through both and can not find a specific clause that may apply.

[Hagalaz]

Wow.

That animal is a little too far south for its kind. Wonder how long it will last against the various predators here in Alberta.

[Tundra Monkey]

Originally Posted by ishootbambi

tundra monkey....what do you think? [/IMG]

Me thinx that is a pretty good lookin' old cow with some good genes that has been livin' the high life in the trees for awhile....too long and too much mass to be a bull with that much horn and have the boss not closed up.

They've been seen fairly regularily for the last few years by locals south of Lutselke' which is on the SEast shore of Great Slave.....so really not that far from the border. I've never heard of one spotted down as far as this one but they are doing very well up here. They are a herd animal so I would bet $$'s to donuts that there are a few more with her. Main predator would be wolves and it is doubtful that one could live on its own for too long but ya never know.

One of the areas that non natives up here can draw a tag is a ways NWest of Lutselke' in the Artillery Lake area.

They'll do well in Ab as long as there is a group of them. Lots of feed and the same preds as we have up here. Wolves and grizz......we have tonnes of both.

I'll try to dig up some pics of the ones that are around Norman Wells. They've moved into the trees there and they are re-writing the books with them.

[Tundra Monkey]

Can someone brighter than me please pm me an e-mail addy so they can put some pics on this

[MountainTi]

Muskox_calf_May_28_07.jpg

Muskox_May_28_07.jpg

small Muskox Group Hammar 28 May 07.jpg

Here you go Tundra, hopefully they show up.
I see I have no idea how to increase the size of pics on here

[Tundra Monkey]

Thank you very much Sir

The 3rd pic shows a young bull and you can see how close his boss is already compared to all of the cows.

In the 2nd pic you can see cows of different ages.....notice none of them have the same mass as the one in the pic from the paper. She's old and has some pretty good genes. Likely spent her whole life eating in the trees imo. One day you're gonna have some monsters cruisin' around down there!!!

The cows in the 1st pic have the same structure as the pic from the paper but nowhere near the mass.

There is a pic of my ox in my album if you wanna check him out. He is a younger bull but you can see how close his boss is. He is the Arctic Island sub-species. They do not eat as well as the mainland ox and are much smaller in body and horn size.

Here's a link to a map of the treeline. Musk-Ox have been seen SWest of Lutselke so it is really not "that" much further. They are doing very well there according to the locals in the area. Pretty cool to see them moving down that far considering they range all the way up to the top of Banks/Victoria Island and beyond!!!

http://geomatics.gov.nt.ca/maps/NWTTreeLineBasic_V3.pdf

Thanx again for the help MountainTi

[ishootbambi]

Originally Posted by Tundra Monkey

Me thinx that is a pretty good lookin' old cow with some good genes that has been livin' the high life in the trees for awhile....too long and too much mass to be a bull with that much horn and have the boss not closed up.

.

you are totally right. i was on the right track with the boss idea, but didnt dawn on me at all that cows have horns too. my bad.

[Alberta Bigbore]

Interesting to see in Alberta for sure!

[DHPP]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

Just a youngster I'd say. Pretty cool and man is he lost!

I agree, cows won't get mass like that, you can see where he is starting to pile up mass on top. He's still young and the boss will close up as he gets older. In MountainTi's pics I believe the second photo is a group of young bulls and in the larger group photo if you look at the front row from left to right its calf cow, cow, young bull, young bull, cow. I'd guess the bulls 2 year olds.



In this photo all of the large animals are cows, if you look most of them are mature and have somewhat of a boss, on the far right there are two calves. The one on the right is a bull, the one on the left is a cow.

My two cents.

[Tundra Monkey]

Originally Posted by DHPP

I agree, cows won't get mass like that, you can see where he is starting to pile up mass on top.

Yeah I can buy that. Maybe just some wishful thinkin' on my part that there is a cow out there with those genes. Not a lot of grey in the saddle either.

It may explain why it's a loner as well. Big Daddy could have laid a good beatin' on him and sent him on a pretty good run.

It is pretty cool that they are doing so well and expanding their range. It really was not that long ago that they were protected.

edit> Are you chasin' sheep on the other side of the border this year DHPP???

[DHPP]

edit> Are you chasin' sheep on the other side of the border this year DHPP???[/QUOTE]

This year I'll probably be coming into the Territories from the west and next year I'll be hunting on the other side.

[mgvande]

I have this picture too my neighbor in the Wells took it. DB is that you?

Originally Posted by DHPP

I agree, cows won't get mass like that, you can see where he is starting to pile up mass on top. He's still young and the boss will close up as he gets older. In MountainTi's pics I believe the second photo is a group of young bulls and in the larger group photo if you look at the front row from left to right its calf cow, cow, young bull, young bull, cow. I'd guess the bulls 2 year olds.



In this photo all of the large animals are cows, if you look most of them are mature and have somewhat of a boss, on the far right there are two calves. The one on the right is a bull, the one on the left is a cow.

My two cents.