KidZone Animals
Musk Ox: Food

Musk ox are herbivores so they don't eat meat. Their diet includes grass, willows, seeds and berries. The musk ox find nutrients easily during the summer months—when they can enjoy tasty grasses and seasonal wild flowers.

In order to find food in the winters, musk oxen will dig into the snow with their hooves and noses. During the winter they must depend on roots, mosses, and lichen that grow on the hillides where the snow layer is much thinner.

Photographed by Karen Kohn;
used with permission under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Nutrients are much harder to come by in the winter months. Musk oxen depend on their ability to develop a thick layer of body-fat throughout the spring and summer in order to prepare for the harsh winter season.