Nome residents are concerned about their security as the oxen that eat musk roam within Nome’s boundaries.
Musk oxen have been seen throughout the city in the area of elementary schools and in the neighborhoods. Musk oxen are said to have killed animals or provoked them and are preventing people from going to the cemetery.
In December 2022 an ox that was killed by musk an officer of the state court services while he tried to rid it of his dog park on his property close to Nome.
Musk oxen had disappeared from Alaska in the early part of the 1900s. They were reared within the Bering Strait region in the 1970s, and later transferred to mainland.
As per the Alaska Department of Fish and Game The population has increased from 750 musk oxen the 1970s, to over 4000 today.
This year the state will offer 30 musk-ox hunting permits for both the outer and inner Nome areas. Sarah Germain, a wildlife biologist from Fish and Game, said this will help in reducing the population of musk ox in town.
“Hopefully since it’s an upcoming cow season, people might be enticed to take home an ox musk in the autumn,” Germain said. “And we’ll have to look at and determine if it will aid in resolving the nuisance musk ox situation.”
Germain says musk oxen are been arriving in towns since.
“Since this time we’ve had a number of inquiries about conflict between humans and dogs that involve musk ox” she explained. “I don’t know the exact cause, but I would say it’s increased in the course of time.”
She added that residents have utilized strategies to keep pets from their property and a few have proven more effective than others.
“Fish and Game personnel have gained a lot of knowledge about getting muskox out of a zone over time, but it’s like you could shout at them, or employ sirens, and there are Water guns” the woman said. “Folks have tried a variety of methods, but all of that is temporary when and not as effective as a fence.”
Sarah Swartz, a Nome resident since 2006, recalls going along Beam Road to view musk Oxen at the time she first moved into town. But an encounter with a stranger six years later altered her view of the world.
“Back to 2012 when my pet during that brief time of putting my laundry away, was bitten,” Swartz said. “And it was extremely traumatizing, because the big animal that was attacking my dog was furious and would not move. It was also difficult to locate my dogs.”
The increased presence of musk oxen on the streets has prompted Swartz to alter her routines and daily habits to the musk oxen and specifically around her house. Swartz said that she gets out each day to ensure there aren’t any musk-oxen who are hiding so she can leave her home.
Fish and Game advises residents who live in a musk-ox-country to clear the brush around their homes in order to increase visibility and decrease the likelihood of having encounters with animals like musk oxen. However, Swartz said that not all Nome residents are financially able or have equipment in order to remove brush and even fencing.
“That is a huge amount of money and time, because of the resources and equipment I must use,” she said. “I am not sure we should pay to do it.”
Swartz stated that she hasn’t found an management plan for musk oxen on the Seward Peninsula, but has discovered strategies for the other Arctic regions which include Greenland. She believes there’s enough area in the region for the musk oxen relocated and suggests an ox farm for musk.
“It’d be ideal for tourism and it’s more secure for the local community as well as everyone who is around,” Swartz said. “We might actually reach the point where we increase the population and have certain animals killed to be used for food, and then be distributed to communities that are that are in need.”
Nome police did not immediately respond to the request for a comment on Friday.
Germain told us in a statement that Fish and Game will be conducting a musk ox study in the Seward Peninsula next spring that will evaluate the outcomes of the new bag as well as limit on cows. Limits will be evaluated in the coming hunting season based on the results.
