Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/812511
studied the landscape, this detail became suddenly emphatic. I was about to learn about the inherent naivety of the arctic musk ox. As it turned out, the stalk was anything but challenging, but I soon discovered that shooting in heavy insulated garb certainly could be. It was only 17 below zero, conditions our guides deemed "warm." Thank God for that! We shadowed the bulls on foot for a mile, pushing hard in the deep snow to pressure them until I was sweating inside my insulating duds. It was just a matter of time before the musk oxen assumed their classic "circle-the-wagons" defense strategy. This ploy protects them from wolves, but is absolutely suicidal in regards to humans carrying modern weapons—even the cutting-edge compound bow I now toted. We approached to within 60 yards several times, but the group would break and Baffin islands, for instance—but polar bear dominated the agenda, and I was determined to make the best of what the area had to offer. To the untrained eye, all musk ox bulls appear appealing, small details separating average bulls from exceptional. S o it was that after four hours we'd looked over perhaps 90 musk ox without taking action. But we soon found fresh tracks through windswept snow, following them over a gentle ridge to discover four bulls pawing a distant bench. One look was all I needed. Even deadpan Imisho was enthusiastic about two of the bulls. They wore heavy bosses and deeply hooked horns. I hadn't given much thought to exactly how we planned to get within archery range in such desolate terrain. Now as I sled. We did not travel far before spotting musk ox. These Pleistocene throwbacks, distantly related to woolly mammoths, wear unbelievably dense, hanging fur that shields them from brutal winters, and the heavily bossed horns of Africa's Cape buffalo. They resemble nothing else on earth. I was along to film Alfredo's coming polar bear hunt, and he had been kind enough to secure a musk ox permit for my troubles, a generous gift for sharing an experience that I otherwise wouldn't have missed for anything. I had approached this adventure knowing full well that a return trip was unlikely. I wanted to make this true once- in-a-lifetime opportunity count, so I'd spent considerable time studying the makings of a trophy musk oxen. Research had revealed that the biggest musk ox are actually found farther south—Victoria