The history of the musk ox farm in Bardu, Arctic Norway

Abstract

In 1969, a musk ox (Ovibos moschatus) farm was started in Bardu, northern Norway, with 25 calves captured in Greenland. John J. Teal Jr., a professor at the University of Alaska, was the primus motor of the initiative, which had the aims of domesticating the musk oxen, distributing the domesticated animals to local farms, exhibiting the animals commercially and providing local knitters with the valuable underwool (qiviut) and, thereby, an income-generating activity. Teal withdrew from the project in 1973. The farm operated until 1975, when a bull, one of three escapees, killed a local hunter. Little has been published in English about the Bardu farm, which was one of only six large-scale musk ox farms ever established, and the only one outside North America. This Perspective piece describes the emergence of the idea of domesticating musk oxen in early 20th century North America; capturing the founding stock; constructing and operating the farm; the effort to produce qiviut handknits; and the circumstances leading to the farm’s closure. I conclude that the Bardu farm achieved none of its animal husbandry or socio-economic goals. The farm’s failure can be attributed to a chronic lack of money; the absence of a clear description of its purposes and a plan to achieve them; the failure to tame the musk oxen and to contain the rutting bulls; and other causes. On a positive note, the University of Tromsø’s research on the surviving animals after the farm closed yielded data relevant to free-living and farm-raised musk oxen.