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Draft

GREENLAND OVIBOS IN CAPTIVITY AND

UNDER DOMESTICATION

EA: John Giaver

        The first Norwegian sealer to bring living musk-ox calves home from

northeast Greenland was Skipper Ole Grödahl of Tromsö. With his sailing

Schooner, the Söstrene , he hunted in Franz Josef Fjord and on Clavering

Island in 1899, and his summer catch included 2 two calves. We do not know

what happened to them after the expedition's return to Tromsö, but it may

be assumed that they were sold to a foreign zoo.

        From 1897 up to 1931, some Norwegian sealers, if they did not get a full

catch during the sealing season in the West Ice at Jan Mayen and in Denmark

Strait, used to sail northward along the northeast Greenland coast for supple–

mentary hunting for of walrus, polar bears, bearded seal, ovibos, and, in addition,

a little salmon fishing. We have reports of 112 such summer expeditions during

the period mentioned. These expeditions stopped when sealing in the strait was

combined with fishing of arctic shark along the southeast Greenland coast.

        A few of the summer expeditions brought back with them musk-ox calves.

Unfortunately our statistics do not specify the number of calves, and the author has

not been able to get information about their fate, except that "some died, and

some were sold to foreign zoos, mostly to Hagenbeck in Berlin."

        In 1900, the sailing schooners Minna and Havfruen , with the skippers

Peter S. Brandal and Ole S. Brandal, brought home "a number of musk-ox calves"

from northeast Greenland. They were placed in a fenced grass field, and it is

reported that the grass turned out to be too "rich", so that the calves died.

        Some years later two calves were brought home to the sealing village

Brandal on the Norwegian west coast. These were placed in an enclosure in the

mountains, where they had a small shed for shelter. When during the winter one

calf died, the other found its way ba k c k to the village and lived with the sheep

until the following summer, when it was sold to a buyer in Berlin the following summer, . i I t had become

quite tame by that time.

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        A real attempt at domestication of the ovibos was made in 1924 when

eleven calves were pastured in a small island, Kiholmen, on the west coast.

Five of them died after a short time, and it was assumed that the grass was

too rich. Consequently, the six remaining calves were moved to the much

larger and more mountainous island, Gursköya. Two of these died after having

fed in a cultivated field. Some of the animals continued to live on the

island for several years, and a newly born cal v f was observed in 1927. It is

thought that the rest eventually were shot by poachers, but we do not know

when.

        These were the early attempts of transplantation. How the calves fared

which were sold to zoos, we do not know. Neither have we any report on how

many calves were brought to Norway during those years, but the number cannot

possibly have exceeded two hundred.

        We might explain here how the calves are caught and transported .

The [ ?] ovibos live in herds:; some consisting of 30 i to 50 animals or even

more, but most of the bands will number only from 5 to 10 full y - grown adults and

calves.

        When calves are caught it is necessary to shoot all the old animals.

The hunters will always pick out small herds with as many calves as possible ,

because a big herd cannot be handled as easily as a small one (the old ones

have to be shot down fast), and naturally, we wish to kill as few ovibos as

possible. The meat of the killed animals is used on board ship.

        The number of old animals shot by calf-hunting Norwegian sealers and

others has been grossly exaggerated. As mentioned above, the taking of small

herds is likely to give the best results, and the relatively small crews of

the sealers would not be able to deal with too many animals. Thus it can be

said that on an average 3 or 4 grown animals are killed for every calf caught.

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As a rule only yearlings or younger calves are taken. The older ones are

too strong and too unruly.

        When the old animals have been shot down, the calves will as a rul e stay

by their mothers, where they are rather easily caught and tied. Then they are

led or carried down to the boat at the beach and taken aboard ship. Some

of the small bulls are real fighters, but the heifers are easy to handle.

        On board the sealer, the calves are placed inside a fence or in wooden

cages. Here they stay during the passage back to Norway. They are fed on

grass collected along the Greenland beaches or on hay of mountain grass

brought from Norway. After a few days the animals are tame as sheep. They

will eat out of one's hand and cry for bread and biscuits. The ship's rolling

does not bother them in the least. From the quayside in Norway they are

transported in wooden cages.

        Since 1929 several attempts have been made to domesticate ovibos from

northeast Greenland in different parts of the world: Alaska, Iceland, Spitsbergen,

and Norway. The Alaskan attempt will be dealt with elsewhere. (x-ref)? ?

        In 1929, the Icelandic Government sent an expedition to northeast Greenland

to try to catch a number of calves for domestication in Iceland. The result

was 7 calves, but having been allowed to graze on cultivated and thus over-rich

grass they all died that same fall.

        In the summer of 1929, a Norwegian Government expedition caught 10 calves

in the districts south of Hold with Ho l p e, northeast Greenland. These were

brought to Spitsbergen together with 7 ovibos others pu r chased from the two skippers

Paul Lillenes and Peder Andresen, who with their motor - cutters Kap Flora and

Saelbarden had caught a relatively great number of calves to meet an American

order for their transfer to Alaska.

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        Thus 17 musk-ox calves were placed at Adventfjorden, west Spitsbergen,

on September 24, 1929. A law of general protection was passed in the

Council on September 20. Several bales of mountain hay were laid out at

an old mining house in Adventfjorden, and all the calves remained there

during the winter. In subsequent years they spread over the small peninsula between

Isfjorden and Bellsund. The first new calves, , at least 4, born in Spits–

bergen were observed in the spring of 1932. The original herd consisted of

9 cows and 8 bulls.

        The ovibos thrived very well in Spitsbergen together with the native

reindeer. Although a few animals undoubtedly were killed by poachers and some

died from other causes, it was estimated that in 1940 the number was from

70 to 80. This was, indeed, a much better result than was expected, as

Spitsbergen has a more humid climate than northeast Greenland.

        Then came the war, and during the years 1942-45 a relatively great number

of ovibos was killed both by Norwegian and German soldiers. We do not know

yet what may be left of the stock, but we do know that there are not many

ovibos on Sp it sbergen today. It is planned, however, to have some new

calves transferred from northeast Greenland.

        The calves brought to the mountains of Norway have been sufficiently near

to make close observations. In 1913 1931 Captain B.H. Olsvik on MIC Pil caught 10 ?

calves in northeast Greenland and brought them to his home in western

Norway. To begin with he kept them in a barn and fed them on hay, but

after a while they sickened "just like men suffering from scurvy." He

then placed them in the open, so that they could feed on whatever they could

find — grass and willow — and they soon recovered. This district has a very

mild climate.

        Captain Olsvik's calves were sold to the Norwegian Government and turned

loose at Snöhetta in the Dovre Mountains in the spring of 1932. No information

is available as to how many bulls and heifers were o i n the lot.

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Dovre should be a much better habitat for ovibus than northeast Greenland.

In fact the mountain grass is so rich that the farmers keep their cows up

there on small farms during the summer; and the ovibos' main winter food,

the willow, which in northeast Greenland is a creeping plant, in Dovre, attains to the

height of a man in Dovre, . It was, in fact, h f ear e d that the pastures there

might be too rich and that the calves might founder, which was not the case,

fortunately.

        In the spring of 1934 four ovibos perished in an avalanche of snow in Drivadalen. The dead

animals, upon examination, proved to be fat and well fed - this at a time

when their counterparts in Greenland would be just skin and bones.

        In the fall of 1938 , the author brought two calves from northeast Greenland

to Dovre - a little cow and a yearling bull.

        The ovibos in Dovre, though they had freedom to roam far and wide over

Norway's mountainous inland, did not, but stayed in the Dovre district, forming

a great attraction for the tourists. The farmers did not mind having them

there, and not infrequently ovibos would mingle with the native cattle and

followed them home to the barn. We know of only one fight between an ovibos

and a native bull, and in that the ovibos' tactics, being so different, he

was the loser.

        Ovibos have not been known to cross with domesticated cattle, even when every

facility for doing so existed. We had no luck in any of our attempts to cross ovibos and domesticated cattle. However, this experience showed that the

herds of ovibos could exist side by side with the native herds, and it was

observed that the ovibos became gentle and tame. The farmers collected ovibos

wool in the field and used it together with shee [ ?] wool, but they did not like

it too well because it did not shrink. This was a pity, they said, as it was

the nicest kind of wool they had ever seen.

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In 1943 there were 15 ovibos in the Dov [ ?] e Mountains, but the next

year all of them were shot food by Germans.

        As the leader of a Government expedition to northeast Greenland in the

summer of 1947, the author carried an order to try to catch some new calves

for transference to the Dovre Mountains. The authorities in different parts

of the country also applied for calves for their districts. However, the

8 calves brought back were all taken to Dovre. These were yearlings, 4 bulls and 4 heifers.

        In December 1947 it was reported that a small and extremely [ ?] bull calf

had been found dead near one of the summer - farms. As this little one had stayed

alone at the farm all through the fall (it loved people) it had apparently

eaten something poisonous outside the houses. In January, 1948, it was

reported that another calf had been found dead, and it must be assumed that

it had been killed by a wolverine.

        As to the fate of the remaining 6 calves, we shall have to wait until

summer. Because of the rather hard winter, mountain hay has been laid out in

various places. Perhaps it would have been wiser to have kept the calves coralled

down in the valley during the first winter.

        Based upon the experiences the author and others have had with ovibos

in captivity, it can be said that the question of nourishment seems to be the most

important, climate much less so. These animals are very hardy. They have been

seen soaked in sea water d uring a very rough crossing of the P p olar S s ea, and they

neither showed signs of discomfort nor did it damage their health. Their legs,

however, seem to be easily broken.

        It has, however, happened in Norway, as in Iceland that musk-ox calves, let

loose on cultivated pastures, ate themselves to death. Now it may be that or other character the lushness of the grass

in itself was at fault; or it may be simply that the animals overate, unused to

such abundance - as do our cattle and horses. It is possible too, that the

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pasture [ ?] land was infected with some contagious disease against which

the native cattle are immune. This has been much discussed.

        In the author's opinion it will be wise not to look to one single

cause of so many deaths. Nevertheless, clearly , food is the most important

issue. We have learned from experience that no trouble occurs when the

calves are fed on mountain grass, or hay from such grass. This fact does

not prove that all the calves mentioned have died because of the character

of cultivated pasture land; [ ?] but it does indicate that the type s of pasture

is an important factor. It may be, though, that there are some special

sorts of plants which the ovibos cannot tolerate. We have seen, on the

other hand, that calves can eat bread and biscuits without harm. It will,

in the author's opinion be advisable in the future to stick to the safest diet

and to keep the calves well away from other animals upon their arrival in a

civilized country. I feel that it is especially important to keep the calves

away from fields that have been artificially manured.

        It has been said very often that the ovibos is a wild and dangerous

animal, unsafe in captivity. How the full- grown ovibos behave I do not know, but

I myself have had a one- year -and-a-half-year-old cow follow me like a dog

for months. A three-year-old bull was once kept at a Danish hunting station

in northeast Greenland, and it became so dependent on its human friends that

it did not dare to leave the station alone. Equally old Norwegian domestic bulls are certainly

far from gentle and they can be more dangerous and wild than any ovibos, even a

wild one.

        The author sincerely hopes that new attempts will be made to acclimatize

ovibos in the United States and other countries, as well as in Norway and

Spitsbergen. We now know how to handle the problems, and are confident we shall

succeed in creating new stocks of these interesting animals in countries where

in pre - historic times they roamed. Trial should also be made at real

in pre-historic domestication.

domesticatio

domestication.

       

John Giaver