Musk Ox Proves To Be Surprisingly Talented at Tetherball & People Are Impressed
For a female muskox at the Port Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, a morning’s exercise can take many of forms. She can trot around her enclosure, hang out with her calf, or get a little game of tetherball in. That’s right—Charlotte the muskox’s keepers have installed the classic children’s playground game in the Arctic Tundra exhibit, and the animals have proved surprisingly talented at batting their new ball around.
“Charlotte the muskox is showing off her pro headbutting and tetherball skills!” reads the caption on this video of the giant animal charging the big red ball. “Her enrichment buoy doesn’t stand a chance against her powerhouse moves.”
But never fear, head butting is a natural part of musk ox behavior, just like with rams and sheep, and they usually ply their skills against much harder surfaces than a simple rubber ball. “Muskoxen have very thick skullcaps and horn plates,” the zoo explains, “to help protect them if hitting something hard.”
All About the Muskox
Muskoxen are a Native American species who lives in the Arctic polar regions of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Their prehistoric range is far more widespread and there have been efforts made to reintroduce the animals to European and Asian Arctic regions. Despite the name, they are actually more closely related to sheep and goats, and are similarly prized for their thick, shaggy wool, which is called qiviut.
In the wild, muskoxen live in herds which range from a half dozen specimens to a couple dozen. At the Port Defiance Zoo, however, they’re more like a nuclear family. Charlotte, Nine years old, lives with her mate, Hudson, who is one year younger. They have welcomed two calves together, including baby Willow, who was born last year.
Enrichment for Zoo Animals
It can often be tricky to keep captive wild animals healthy and happy in the confines of a zoo environment. Even the most well-meaning zoo cannot offer most of their animals the range of territory or freedom that they would experience in the wild. Animals kept in captivity do not get as much exercise as their wild counterparts either, causing situations of stress, disease, and overall ill-health.
Enter enrichment. Enrichment activities are designed to help keep animals occupied, entertained, and physically and mentally active while living in the captive environment of a zoo.
Common enrichment activities include things like giving the animals tasks or toys, like letting apes wash the windows of their enclosure, or providing polar bears with pool rafts.
An evergreen method of enrichment is to hide food in puzzles or other hard-to-reach places, to mimic the work the animals would have to do in the wild in order to eat. Sometimes food might be frozen into blocks or placed inside puzzles.
And then there’s always the option of switching around the habitat in which they live. Zookeepers cannot make the enclosures any larger, but they can add new branches and hiding spots, or areas to climb and explore.
For the muskoxen of Port Defiance, this means areas where they are on view to the public, and more remote, private areas where they can exist without being gawked at…and maybe even get in a game of tetherball.
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