June 17, 2010

First recorded sighting of a muskox – 1869

On this date in 1869, the English explorer Henry Kelsey spotted a muskox. He described it as an “ill-shapen beast.”

Muskoxen live in the Arctic, in Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. They are valued for their meat, milk, and fine wool—so much so, that they have been reintroduced in Scandinavian countries and Siberia.