Last week, zookeepers at the Minnesota Zoo made the painful decision to euthanize their two final remaining musk oxen. The reason? A rapidly changing climate that was becoming too hot for the elderly musk oxen.
John — Last week, zookeepers at the Minnesota Zoo made the painful decision to euthanize their two final remaining musk oxen.
The reason? A rapidly changing climate that is becoming too hot for the elderly animals.
Zookeepers said they’ve noticed changes over the past decade, saying that it “seems even Minnesota has become too far south for this species to thrive.”
“It was very weather dependent with [musk oxen],” Zookeeper Cindy Bjork-Groebner said. “You could tell they were thriving when the temperatures were colder and then the minute the heat and humidity hit, that’s when I really started watching and could notice changes.”
And musk oxen are not the only species suffering under the strain brought by climate change. Saving species like the musk oxen means electing more SEEC members to Congress and supporting them in their work to mitigate the impacts of climate change. Will you join this fight by making a donation today?
The Minnesota Zoo used to have a large and healthy musk ox population. Since 1980, 65 musk oxen were born at the facility. But over the past ten years, zookeepers began noticing changes with the herds as the climate changed. The zoo made a decision about a decade ago to stop breeding the oxen, and the herd has since dwindled until there were only two remaining.
“It was the humane choice,” Zoo Animal Health Manager Taylor Yaw said of the decision to euthanize the musk oxen. Sadly, that may be true. But how many other gentle giants will die off because of our inability to combat climate change?
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