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AUSUITTUQ/GRISE FIORD
It's muskox mating season in Grise Fiord, but, as a few residents have discovered, sometimes bulls have their eyes on the wrong species. This year, humans and Toyotas are the unlikely targets of their affections.

Muskoxen, like these seen in 2008, are venturing close to Grise Fiord during their annual rutting season, says Laisa Watsko, who outran a male muskox close to town. - photo courtesy of Jimmy Qaapik

Last month at Lee Point, Laisa Watsko was goose hunting with her sons, ages eight and six, near their camp 16 km out of the hamlet, waiting for her husband, David, to return from dropping off a rabbit their son had killed. Excited to find valuable muskox hair on the ground, her mood changed when she and her sons looked behind them.

"We saw a muskox up the hill, running pretty fast towards us," she recalled, "but he was very far, facing us and running down. We thought, 'Uh oh, how did we miss that?'"

The muskox backed off when they ran down the river ridge. By this time, David had rejoined them and they continued their walk toward the pond where they would hopefully find geese. It was only a few minutes before the bull tried to catch them off-guard.

"My boy said, 'Look, it's coming again!'" she said. "This time it was running twice as fast and coming non-stop. You could tell it was in a charge mode. This time it came very close, and luckily my husband had a rifle."

David fired some warning shots that scared the beast off, but not before a frightening chase.

"My boy and I were skimming across the moss on the little ponds we could walk through, and we made it (back to camp, two kilometers away) almost in no time watching the bull charging at us," she said. "My little one and his father were calm because he had the rifle. Meanwhile, my older son and I were sweating our hips away running towards our camp because we were so scared."

The Watskos made it back to the camp safe and sound, but pulled out their bigger gun in case the bull decided to come back.

"It was a relief when we made it back, so we had a bonfire just watching in that direction to make sure it's not coming back. It's a good thing my boys and I looked back when my husband was coming back (from dropping off the rabbit), otherwise we'd be stomping grounds."

Later in June, Amon Akeeagok and his family took a drive in their Toyota to find a group of seven muskox near Brume Point.

"We went to check up on them, and we didn't see any of them," Akeeagok said. "On our way back, about halfway home, we saw a muskox walking down the road."

With the muskox blocking the road, the family was forced to stop.

"It was a male, a big one. We didn't want to piss it off," he said. "I tried yelling at it for a bit. I honked my horn. It looked back and just kept walking down the hill. It went to a flat area where it just started eating on grassy food, and we – me, my wife and two kids – were stuck there waiting for it to move for like 15 minutes."

Akeeagok decided to drive closer, but reconsidered that plan.

"I sort of thought, 'Hey, this is not a good idea,'" he recalled. "My wife kept saying 'I don't think it's a good idea.' I started honking my horn again. We were maybe 50 yards from it."

Eventually, the beast noticed the Akeeagoks' honking and moved back toward the mountain.

"We were finally able to pass it, and hurriedly drove to town," he said.

"They're not scared at all because it's running season," Watsko said, noting there is one hanging around the airport. "They're just not afraid."

Akeeagok regrets not bringing a rifle or a radio, but doesn't eat muskox so would lean toward calling for help instead of shooting.

"Only if it charged us, would I have shot it," he said.

"It was between a Toyota RAV-4 and a muskox," he said. "I think the muskox (would have won)."

A friend of Akeeagok's suggested he should put muskox horns on the front of his truck, but Akeeagok is not going to tempt fate.

"I don't think I will because it might get a bad idea."

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