Musk Oxen populations are estimated from observations taken during aerial surveys. Hunting permits are given out based on pre-calving populations.
A reestablished population of muskoxen in northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada declined between 1999 and 2006. In April 2008, biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) flew a pre-calving muskox census across the Arctic Refuge in Game Management Unit 26C (Unit 26C) between the Canning River and the United States-Canada border and between the Beaufort Sea coast and the foothills of the Brooks Range.
During the census, we counted 44 muskoxen in 3 groups in Unit 26C on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. During censuses in 2006 and 2007, we observed 1 muskox and 5 muskoxen in this same area. Radiotelemetry showed that groups moved into Unit 26C from east and west of the Arctic Refuge in 2007-2008. Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) biologists reported that muskox numbers remained stable in Unit 26B west of the Arctic Refuge where they are conducting an extensive study.
This suggests that abundance of muskoxen in northeastern Alaska is about 250 and that the total population is about 350 animals, assuming 100 muskoxen are still in northwestern Canada. Federal subsistence hunting regulations state that permits to hunt muskoxen in Unit 26C (Arctic Refuge) cannot exceed 3% of the number seen during the precalving census. Because we saw 44 muskoxen during the precalving census, a drawing was held in Kaktovik and we issued 1 permit to take 1 male muskox in Unit 26C during the 2008-2009 hunting season (July 15, 2008 – March 30, 2009).
