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Tuesday, June 14, 2005
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Another great article in this Sunday's paper on the only for-profit musk ox herd in the state.
Musk oxen, although cute and shaggy in appearance, are far from cuddly. Those guys are tough hombres. I loved this section of the article:
This is a beast that wandered across the Bering Land Bridge during the Pleistocene, along with the woolly mammoth and saber-toothed cat, and neither its physiology nor its attitude are much different today.
"They're nothing warm and friendly, like you'd go pet," John said.
Certain musk oxen can be tamed, but they are not a domesticated animal like a cow. Not by a long shot. Their immune systems are different. Their feeding requirements are different. And some have serious anger management problems.
Rut doesn't bring out their best behavior, either. Bulls can back up 30 feet or more, then come charging at each other full tilt, crashing head-on.
"Yeah, they're really head-buttin' creatures," John said.
They'll do this over and over until one concedes and staggers off in search of aspirin. That's why their horns grow several inches thick all the way across their foreheads -- to serve as bumpers. That part of the horn assembly is called a "boss," and it's there to protect the bulls' one-track minds.
8:55:09 PM 
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I've complained several times within the past few weeks about this year's ridiculous bumper crop of mosquitos. The buzzing horde situation is even worse than last year and last year was the worst I'd ever seen.
But I bet you all thought I was just a big whiney butt. Well, that may actually be true. But lest you thinking I'm making this all up, the lead headline in this Sunday's Daily News exclaimed:
The Bugs Are Back With a Biting Vengeance.
I think these two paragraphs say it all:
"We're loading on the DEET and wearing head nets and wearing gloves. Campers that are coming up, they aren't even getting out of their RVs. ... We had two trail volunteers come up and quit after two days because they couldn't take the bugs another day."
People cutting fire breaks in the Mat-Su Borough say the mosquitoes "ran away with a helmet and an ax the other day," joked fire mitigation officer Hugh Matthews. "They're so bad, they're filing FAA flight plans."
8:31:14 PM
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© Copyright 2005 Stephanie A. Kesler.
Last update: 7/2/2005; 10:46:28 PM.
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