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Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 6 pp 493–498Cite as

“Fragrance on the Desert Air”: The Semiochemistry of the Muskox

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Abstract

Muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) are the largest herbivores of the high Arctic and their range extends from the northern coasts of Greenland and Ellesmere Island (83°N). the most ncrtherly land area in the world, to as far south as the Thelon Game Sanctuary (64°N) (Lent. 1988). They are normally inhabitants of the open tundra though there are records of muskoxen being found south of the tree line (Barr, 1991) and the Pleistocene muskoxen of Europe apparently occupied forested and steppe environments as well as the glacial margins (Crégut-Bonnoure. 1984). The genus Ovibos probably first appeared about one million years ago in the Middle Pleistocene of central Asia though the evidence for this not particularly secure (Crégut-Bonnoure, 1984).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterinary Anatomy, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 0W0

    Peter F. Flood

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  1. Peter F. Flood
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Richard L. Doty

  2. College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Dietland Müller-Schwarze

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Flood, P.F. (1992). “Fragrance on the Desert Air”: The Semiochemistry of the Muskox. In: Doty, R.L., Müller-Schwarze, D. (eds) Chemical Signals in Vertebrates 6. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9655-1_75

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9655-1_75

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9657-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9655-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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