Niptanatiak lives in Kugluktuk, a small hamlet on the mainland, just across from Victoria Island. Diets vary there, but for many of its Indigenous and traditional people, harvesting wild game is central to culture and food security. \u201cOur elders always said, \u2018Look after your food basket.\u2019 (You know, they said it in our language.) \u2018Look after it well, keep it well.\u2019 And that always stayed with me,\u201d Niptanatiak says.<\/p>\n
With steep caribou declines in the region since the late 1990s, the recovery of muskoxen populations has been a \u201cblessing,\u201d he adds. Mother Nature \u201caccommodated us so perfectly, or else we\u2019d be starving.\u201d<\/p>\n
But over the past couple of decades, muskox recovery has been threatened by new emerging diseases and escalating climate change impacts, worrying biologists and communities.<\/p>\n
![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/12-.jpg\")
Muskoxen have survived harsh Arctic conditions in the Canadian Archipelago for untold centuries. But now, emerging diseases and climate change are posing serious threats to the species. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.
\nOutbreak on Victoria and Banks islands<\/p>\n
Starting in around 2009 and continuing through 2014, hunters on Victoria Island began finding muskox carcasses strewn across the tundra \u2014 half a dozen or so animals within a relatively small area, with no signs of predation or other obvious cause of death. It was frightening, says Niptanatiak, who was then a conservation officer with the government of Nunavut in Canada. In 2012, a total of about 150 carcasses were found on nearby Banks Island, prompting more thorough investigation.<\/p>\n
The cause, researchers determined, was a bacteria called Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (Er). Common in pigs and poultry, and known to be present in marine ecosystems, the bacteria had not previously been found in muskoxen. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis revealed this to be a unique strain of Er dubbed the \u201cArctic clone.\u201d The lack of genetic diversity within the strain indicated that it was very new and moving quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve never really seen anything like this before,\u201d as compared to other strains of Er, Taya Forde, a senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow and first author of a 2016 Frontiers in Microbiology<\/a> study on the pathogen, tells Mongabay by video call.<\/p>\n The impact on muskoxen was devastating: On Banks Island, the population fell from 37,000 in 2010, to fewer than 14,000<\/a> in 2014, post-outbreak.<\/p>\n \u201cErysipelothrix, the mortality rates and the impact, they are alarming,\u201d Susan Kutz, a professor at the University of Calgary, who heads a research program on emerging diseases in muskoxen and caribou, tells Mongabay in a video call. \u201cYou try to be balanced on this, but it\u2019s alarming.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Two-eyed seeing\u2019: An Arctic early warning system<\/p>\n As bad as those declines have been, they don\u2019t tell the whole story: On the positive side, an innovative collaborative effort was quickly able to fill in disease data gaps in a remote Arctic region where tracking wildlife health is extremely challenging.<\/p>\n Kutz\u2019s scientific research group partners with traditional hunter and trapper associations, government agencies and other groups in a community-based wildlife health surveillance program focused on muskoxen and caribou. Under the program, hunters collect blood, tissue and other samples from harvested muskoxen and caribou, noting anything they find concerning, and send the samples out for analysis.<\/p>\n In addition, the research team collects traditional knowledge through interviews. Originally working with just three communities \u2014 Kugluktuk, Ekaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay) and Ulukhaktok \u2014 the program has now expanded to seven communities. Over time, its \u201ctwo-eyed seeing\u201d approach has helped detect several wildlife disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n When Matilde Tomaselli, a former Ph.D. student in Kutz\u2019s research group, sat down with hunters and trappers in Ekaluktutiak (Cambridge Bay) on Victoria Island in 2014, they described in detail how the epidemic had unfolded over a six-year period, tracing precisely where and when each animal had died over a large area.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we had not done those interviews, there\u2019d be this massive population decline, and people would say \u2018what happened?\u2019 \u2026 Biologists would have eventually done a survey and gone, \u2018yeah, you\u2019re right. There\u2019s no muskoxen around, where\u2019d they go?\u2019\u201d Kutz says.<\/p>\n Then, in August 2021, on Ellesmere Island, a remote and largely uninhabited island about 1,000 km (620 mi) east of Victoria Island and near Greenland, a wildlife film crew spotted dozens of dead muskoxen over just a couple weeks.<\/p>\n When the scene was later described to Kutz, it was hauntingly familiar. \u201cSummer mortalities, muskoxen of all age classes that otherwise look healthy, dropping dead. So quite dramatic, really, and depressing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Over the next four summers, Kutz and her team, in partnership with the Nunavut government, sampled carcasses on Ellesmere and neighboring Axel Heiberg islands; cutting up livers, kidneys and other organs, cracking open bones and collecting soil near the carcass sites. They also sampled carcasses of other species and collected scat to try to determine the bacteria\u2019s source and how it was transmitted.<\/p>\n The pathogen, it turns out, is \u201cpretty hardy\u201d and can last for up to five years in soil, McCaide Wooten, a Ph.D. student in Kutz\u2019s lab, and first author on a 2025 Scientific Reports<\/a> study on the Ellesmere Island outbreak, tells Mongabay by video call. The researchers also found the pathogen in carcasses of a few other species, but it wasn\u2019t possible to tell if Er was the cause of death or how widespread mortality might be. There are a lot of sparsely inhabited areas in the Arctic, and smaller carcasses disappear quickly, making it hard to track the path of a deadly malady.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s concerning, given its apparent pathogenicity in muskoxen, that [Er Arctic clone] could be causing pretty significant disease in other species, like caribou, or other species of high importance to people living in the North,\u201d Wooten says.<\/p>\n Researchers still don\u2019t know where the bacteria originated or how it traveled from one region to another. It\u2019s possible the Er Arctic clone could have jumped from the marine to the terrestrial environment, been released from thawing permafrost or just be a random mutation that has proven extremely virulent for muskoxen, Wooten says.<\/p>\n On their last visits to Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands, researchers found fewer fresh carcasses, and in 2025, they were relieved to see calves and yearlings in muskox herds.<\/p>\n But on Banks and Victoria islands, muskoxen are still declining. A 2020 survey estimated about 11,000 muskoxen on Banks Island<\/a>; that\u2019s about a quarter of the pre-Er population and a fraction of the nearly 70,000 estimate from 2000. Losses were likely similar on Victoria Island, Kutz says.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The continuing decline may be due to multiple factors, Kutz adds. Working with the community-based wildlife health surveillance program, researchers have discovered that brucellosis, a zoonotic disease already found in caribou in the area, is also now emerging in muskoxen. Since 2015, the number of muskoxen on Victoria Island and parts of the mainland that are seropositive for brucellosis has shot up<\/a>.<\/p>\n In wildlife, brucellosis causes lameness and abortions. People can also contract brucellosis from handling or eating infected animal parts. The disease causes fever and, if untreated, reproductive issues, so harvesters must exercise caution when handling infected animals.<\/p>\n In muskoxen, the signs of brucellosis infection in the animal are slightly different than in caribou. That makes it especially important to get the word out to harvesters, Forde says, so they can take precautions and collect samples to check if animals are infected.<\/p>\n For now, the Canadian mainland muskoxen populations near Kugluktuk are healthy, Niptanatiak says. This year there was plenty of fat on the meat, something he hasn\u2019t seen in a long time. Members of the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization used to also hunt muskoxen on Victoria Island but haven\u2019t for years, as they allow populations to recover.<\/p>\n For some communities, especially those on Banks and Victoria islands, the steep muskoxen declines mean hunters have to travel farther to harvest food for their families, Niptanatiak says. Cambridge Bay used to have a commercial muskox meat processing plant, but with the muskox population crashing, it shut down. Harvesting wildlife is a central part of Inuit culture and food security<\/a>.<\/p>\n Muskoxen are not only plagued by emerging diseases; they\u2019re also impacted by an Arctic that is warming nearly four times<\/a> as fast as the global average.<\/p>\n One look at a muskox, with its dark, shaggy coat and plush qiviut underfur, is all you need to know about a beast perfectly adapted to extreme cold. That\u2019s backed up by work on fossilized bones, Anne Gunn, a former wildlife biologist with the Northwest Territories government and a muskox expert, tells Mongabay by video call. During past glacial periods, muskoxen thrived; when the climate warmed, muskoxen suffered.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s hotter, drier summers are physiologically stressful for muskoxen, with scant surface water and disappearing permafrost making it harder for the animals to cool down. This could explain a seemingly paradoxical impact of climate change, with muskox numbers crashing on Arctic islands but expanding their range south on the mainland to the treeline, where they may find more shade, Gunn says.<\/p>\n Climate change poses a second problem: A warmer Arctic increasingly sees ice storms, also known as rain-on-snow<\/a> events. These occurrences make it hard for muskox and other animals<\/a> to break though the icy crust that forms atop snow to find food<\/a>, Gunn says, which can lead to large die-offs or affect survival. On Banks Island, large numbers of muskox carcasses were found following rain-on-snow, freezing rain and deep snow events in the winters of 1993-94 and 2003-04.<\/p>\n Climate change has indirect impacts as well. Kutz\u2019s team has found that muskoxen on Victoria Island, and in some other areas, are now low in critical trace minerals like selenium, needed for growth, reproduction and immunity. Usually, muskoxen get these trace minerals from salt licks or their food. But thawing permafrost, changing plant diversity or even changes in flowering times could be altering mineral content in soils or uptake by plants.<\/p>\n Then there are the parasites. Muskox lungworms<\/a> are parasitic worms that form cysts on infected animals\u2019 lungs. They were first detected in muskoxen in the 1980s. Lungworms can only survive in certain temperature conditions due to their life cycle, and that kept numbers down and prevented spread. But over the past few decades, researchers have found that lungworms are showing up farther north, with muskoxen also carrying a heavier parasite load, according to a 2020 study<\/a> on which Kutz was a co-author. In heavily infested muskoxen, lungworm cysts can take up half of an animal\u2019s lung space, she says.<\/p>\n It\u2019s likely all these stressors are acting together, to varying degrees, contributing to the dramatic muskox declines seen on Banks and Victoria islands, Gunn notes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s uncertainty about the role of epidemics and parasites to [fully] explain the rate of decline that was observed. \u2026 It\u2019s going to probably turn out to be a complex of factors that started to operate together and \u2026 add to each other\u2019s impacts,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n Today the global muskox population sits at about 141,000, with about 81,000 in Canada, Gunn says.<\/p>\n Muskoxen are survivors, she concludes. They have been around for a million years, lived through glacial periods, and in modern times, rebounded from near-extinction to occupy a wide range of geographies. But we shouldn\u2019t be \u201ccomplacent.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem, Gunn says, is that the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future.<\/p>\n Banner image: Muskoxen on Ellesmere Island. As a species, muskoxen have been around for a million years and are often called \u201cice-age survivors.\u201d Though they have one of the lowest levels of genetic diversity of any mammal, the full suite of immune-related genes are intact in the species, says muskox expert Anne Gunn. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.<\/p>\n Citations:<\/p>\n Ferguson, M. A. (1992). Status and trends of Rangifer tarandus and Ovibos moschatus populations in Canada. Rangifer, 12(3), 127-141. Forde, T. L., Orsel, K., Zadoks, R. N., Biek, R., Adams, L. G., Checkley, S. L., \u2026 & Kutz, S. J. (2016). Bacterial genomics reveal the complex epidemiology of an emerging pathogen in arctic and boreal ungulates. Frontiers in Microbiology, 7, 1759. Wooten, M. T., Forde, T. L., Roberto-Charron, A., Fredlund, M., Mullin, T., Christensen, O. A., \u2026 & Kutz, S. J. (2025). Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae clone reemergence in association with a multi-year mass mortality event in high Arctic muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus). Scientific Reports, 15(1), 43135. https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-025-27316-y.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Kutz, S. J., Hoberg, E. P., & Polley, L. (2001). A new lungworm in muskoxen: an exploration in Arctic parasitology. Trends in Parasitology, 17(6), 276-280. doi:10.1016\/S1471-4922(01)01882-7<\/a><\/p>\n Aguilar, X. F., Mavrot, F., Surujballi, O., Leclerc, L., Tomaselli, M., & Kutz, S. (2024). Brucellosis emergence in the Canadian Arctic. One Health, 18, 100712. doi:10.1016\/j.onehlt.2024.100712<\/a><\/p>\n Carter, N. A., van Luijk, N., Dawson, J., Parker, C., Grey, K., Provencher, J., \u2026 & Wesche, S. (2025). Niqivut (our food)\u2014dimensions of Inuit country food harvesting and significance in Arctic Canada: bountiful, seasonal,\u201csoul food\u201d. Arctic Science, 11, 1-15. doi:10.1139\/as-2024-0007<\/a><\/p>\n Rantanen, M., Karpechko, A. Y., Lipponen, A., Nordling, K., Hyv\u00e4rinen, O., Ruosteenoja, K., \u2026 & Laaksonen, A. (2022). The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979. Communications earth & environment, 3(1), 168. doi:10.1038\/s43247-022-00498-3<\/a><\/p>\n Berger, J., Hartway, C., Gruzdev, A., & Johnson, M. (2018). Climate degradation and extreme icing events constrain life in cold-adapted mammals. Scientific Reports, 8(1). doi:10.1038\/s41598-018-19416-9<\/a><\/p>\n Kafle, P., Peller, P., Massolo, A., Hoberg, E., Leclerc, L. M., Tomaselli, M., & Kutz, S. (2020). Range expansion of muskox lungworms track rapid arctic warming: implications for geographic colonization under climate forcing. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 17323. doi:10.1038\/s41598-020-74358-5<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4-Aug-2011-Victoria-Island-MX-Kutz-et-al.-2015.png\")
A dead muskoxen on Victoria Island in 2011 (see locator map below). Starting in about 2009 and continuing through to 2014, hunters and trappers began noticing mysterious numbers of dead muskoxen on Victoria and Banks islands. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten, from Kutz et al. (2015).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026_025_AA_Muskoxen_v2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/3-Edit-31.jpg\")
In 2021, a wildlife film crew on Ellesmere Island noticed dozens of muskox carcasses within just a few weeks. A four-year study showed that the mortalities were linked to Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae Arctic clone, an emerging pathogen in muskoxen. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.
\nEr appears on Ellesmere Island<\/p>\n![\"Research](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5-ATVs.jpg\")
Research team using ATVs to get around Ellesmere Island. Large parts of the Canadian Arctic are uninhabited, and wildlife disease outbreaks can go unnoticed. Conducting field research in places like Ellesmere is logistically challenging and expensive. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.<\/p>\n![\"Ph.D.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8-Wooten1.jpg\")
Ph.D. candidate McCaide Wooten sampling a muskox carcass on Ellesmere Island with Grise Fiord Conservation Officer Olaf Christensen. This muskox cow was killed by wolves, but samples were collected to check the health status of the animal and to detect pathogens. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.
\nContinuing declines are a worry for Inuit communities<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/9-Susan-sampling.jpg\")
Susan Kutz, professor at the University of Calgary, examining a muskox skeleton on Ellesmere Island. This strain of Er can persist in the soil for up to five years. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/6-wolves_hunting.jpg\")
A bull muskoxen defending a cow and her calf from wolves. The wolves eventually killed both the cow and calf. \u201cWatching the hunting and killing of the muskoxen was not easy, but being able to see this activity at the end of that day under gorgeous light was incredibly special and really put the \u2018circle of life\u2019 in perspective,\u201d Ph.D. candidate McCaide Wooten writes in an email to Mongabay. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.
\nHotter summers, melting permafrost and \u2018rain-on-snow\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Drying](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/10-Dry_meat.jpeg\")
Drying muskox meat. A community-based wildlife health surveillance program, a collaboration between hunter and trapper associations, University of Calgary researchers and other agencies, is helping to answer many questions about wildlife health and emerging diseases. Image courtesy of Allen Niptanatiak.
\n![\"Current](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Map1_Muskoxen-distribution-1.png\")
Current global muskox distribution, showing endemic, mixed (translocation to an area with endemic muskoxen) and translocated (introduced and\/or reintroduced) populations. Note the boundaries of populations are approximate. The muskox is often called an \u201cice-age survivor\u201d and has been around for about a million years, with its range shrinking and contracting over time. Image courtesy of Cuyler et al. (2020).<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/11-Edit-090.jpg\")
A lone muskox on Ellesmere Island. The Arctic is warming nearly four times faster than the global average. Muskoxen are susceptible to heat stress, with microorganisms in their rumen being very sensitive to changes in temperature. As well, climate change is bringing more \u201crain-on-snow\u201d and freezing rain, conditions which make it difficult for muskoxen to feed. Image courtesy of McCaide Wooten.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/septentrio.uit.no\/index.php\/rangifer\/article\/view\/1017<\/a><\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/journals\/microbiology\/articles\/10.3389\/fmicb.2016.01759\/full<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/975100c711ed9f4e4736fd7fa588cb07b44dc86ff3a043a9113559110473e565.png\")
<\/p>\n