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Visiting LARS

Until I visited the Large Animal Research Station (LARS) in Fairbanks, I never knew about qiviut, the warmer-than-wool under fur of the muskox that is more expensive than cashmere. Our guide, Jessee, a graduate student in Enivornmental Policy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks (and a poetry major as an undergrad) led us on an incredibly information, funny, and endearing tour of LARS. He lured the muskox to the front fo the pen with laurel leaves. Several cows and their calves came up to the fence. Full grown muskox can range between 600 and 1400 pounds, and at first gland they are a kind of hideous looking creature. It didn't take long for us to find the muskox to be incredibly cute. They are gentle and peaceful. Because they can't move quickly at all but kind of lumber on by, they protect themselves from predators by lining up together and creating a line of defense. The predator cannot penetrate their wall of horns. Unfortunately, standing still and staring down your predator is a horrible adaptation against hunters with guns.

This particular muskox population was bred from muskox brought over from Greenland. The work of LARS has reintroduced muskox into Alaska when the wild population had dwindled to near extinction. It turns out a muskox is not an ox at all and it's not even closely related to a cow (though it ruminates and the females are referred to as cows); a muskox is really a close relative of the goat. You can see it in the shape of the hind legs, the stoutness, and also the way muskox buck at each other as goats do.

Next to the muskox are the caribou and reindeer (reindeer are domesticated caribou). We met Bailey, a three or for year old caribou whose antlers were in their velvet stage. This means he was growing a new set. Unbeleiveably, caribou shed their antlers every year. Under the velvet coating of Bailey's antlers, was the soft tissue and blood of the new growth. He was preparing to shed the velvet coating to expose new bone, so his antlers itched and while we were there, he kept rubbing on the chain link. Female caribou, we learned, shed their antlers after the males do. This is so that if she is pregnant, she can push the males around and get enough food to nurture her growing young. If she is not pregnant, she sheds the antlers.

For the sake of time, we almost skipped visiting LARS, but it was a highlight of our time in the Fairbanks area worth a visit when in the area.

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