View allAll Photos Tagged Musk
Carduus nutans, with the common names musk thistle, nodding thistle, and nodding plumeless thistle, is a biennial plant in the daisy and sunflower family Asteraceae.
If one uses their imagination, the musk ox in the middle is laughing at a joke he made about the female on the left while the male on the right has a look of disbelief as to what the male in the middle said. Okay, I've been out in the cold tundra too long!
There was a herd of Musk Oxen on a hill about a half mile away. Was making my way towards them when they all ran across the top of the hill towards me. The stopped a few hundred feet away and this is one of the photos of a few of them.
To me, Musk Ox are a living dinosaur, their look is one of ancient times. One of my co-workers brought his Dad up to the Arctic to see Musk Ox, when he found out they were in the sheep family, he had no interest in them anymore. So sad, because they have extreme character and are an interesting animal to watch.
This photo captures the moment that the photographer was spotted. The Musk Ox all froze from what they were doing to inspect the strange creature that previously went unnoticed. After a few seconds of inspection, they went on browsing on the grasses. They did take off running back down the hill away from me but when they got to the other end, they turned and ran back again. All together, spent almost an hour with these beautiful creatures.
The whole herd came running towards the photographer so thought I would take a few photos. There were about 20 in this herd and in this photo was able to capture eight running. Not sure what caused them all to run at the same time towards me, but sure am glad they did.
Sternotherus odoratus is a species of small turtle native to southeastern Canada and much of the Eastern United States. It is also known as the common musk turtle, eastern musk turtle, or stinkpot due to its ability to release a foul musky odor from scent glands on the edge of its shell, possibly to deter predation. (Wikipedia)