Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park (September 1915): Thirteenth EditionHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Popular Official Guide to the New York Zoological Park (September 1915): Thirteenth Edition
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
New York Zoological Park
The Musk-Ox is an animal of strange form, inhabiting a small portion of
the Arctic regions of the western hemisphere, up to the very
northernmost points of land east of the Mackenzie River. At Fort Conger
(Latitude 81°, 40′), its flesh was a godsend to General Greely, and
later on to Commander Peary, also. Structurally, this animal stands in a
genus of its own (_Ovibos_), midway between the cattle and the sheep,
but it is unqualifiedly a misnomer to call it a “musk-sheep.”
An adult male Musk-Ox stands 4 ft. 5 in. high at the shoulders and is 6
ft. 7 in. in total length. Our first specimen was a female, two years
old. She stood 3 ft. 2 in. high at the shoulders, and was 4 ft. 10 in.
in total length. Her entire body was covered by a dense mass of fine
light brown hair, of a woolly nature, overlaid by a thatch of very long,
straight hair specially designed to shed rain.
The Musk-Ox inhabits the Barren Grounds of northern Canada north of
Latitude 64° from Great Bear Lake to Hudson Bay, Grant Land, and the
northeast coast of Greenland from Franz Josef Fiord (Latitude 70°) to
the most northerly point of land. About twenty living specimens have
been taken when very young at Franz Josef Fiord, by Swedish and
Norwegian whaling parties. The Peary Arctic Club, of New York, presented
to the New York Zoological Society a young calf which was captured by
Commander Peary at Fort Conger, in 1902, but it lived only a few months.
[Illustration: MOUFLON]
[Illustration: ARCAL SHEEP]
[Illustration: HIMALAYAN TAHR]
[Illustration: BURRHEL]
The Big-Horn Mountain Sheep, (_Ovis canadensis_), is exhibited in the
Zoological Park, whenever it may be obtained. The efforts that have been
made in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago to acclimatize
the Big-Horn of the Rocky Mountains have proven the extreme difficulty
involved in keeping specimens of that species alive and in good
condition anywhere in the Mississippi Valley, or on the Atlantic coast.
The changes of atmosphere and temperature seem more violent than
American mountain sheep are fitted by nature to endure, and thus far all
specimens tried have died within a comparatively few months.
[Illustration: CHAMOIS]
[Illustration: MARKHOR]
In his own country, the Rocky Mountain Big-Horn is a bold, hardy and
robust animal. He is high-headed, keen-sighted, and a sure-footed
mountaineer. He dwells in the wildest and most picturesque country that
he can find between the “bad-lands” of western North Dakota and the line
of perpetual snow on the Rockies. His massive circling horns render his
head a much-coveted trophy, and his flesh is most excellent food. A
full-grown ram (_Ovis canadensis_) stands 41 inches in height at the
shoulders, and weighs 316 pounds.
[Illustration: AOUDAD]
[Illustration: PERSIAN WILD GOAT]
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