The Musk Ox Plan!

The Musk Ox Plan!

Yes, the Musk Ox. Big Arctic herbivore - hairy, sturdy, rare, just whats needed for the Pleistocene Park.

10 years ago we already brought 6 baby musk ox to the Pleistocene Park. We brought them from the Wrangel Island and it was one of the most extreme and dangerous expeditions we ever made. 

It is a 1000km one way through the Arctic Ocean. And it wasn’t entirely successful. After a week roaming in the floating ice, we finally reached the Island and came to the abandoned little village, where local National Reserve rangers kept 7 babies which they already caught for us – 4 females and 3 males. Everything looked good and we were getting ready to load them into the deck of our little boat next day, but in the evening polar bear came to the paddock where musk ox were kept, broke the fence, killed one of the musk ox, and the rest escaped. So next 10 days we spent driving on ATVs on this island looking for new musk ox herds, trying to tranquilize babies. We finally caught 6 babies. Guess what are the odds that all 6 of them will be of the same gender? Roughly 1.5%. And the odds were not on our side. We end up bringing 6 males to the Pleistocene Park. On the way back there was no floating ice we but we got into a very serious storm and had very rough 2 days in the open ocean. 

Below are some selected images from the Wrangel trip 2010.

For many years we couldn’t find any options to bring females . Trip to the Wrangle island was very dangerous and we didn't want to do this expedition ever egagin and the only other option at that time was the rental of helicopter on Taimyr peninsula and catching babies there, with the total budget of around 500,000 USD+. Which was never within our possibilities

Of all those 6 babies, one was killed by his companions in the first week on the quarantine. For some reason they started fighting and he got beaten too much. We tried to help with veterinaries, but with no success. Second died in the first summer, reasons are unknown to us. We found body with no visual injuries in the shrubland. And the other 4 musk ox lived in the Park for about 7 years. 3 of them even made good friends with the wisent. But in 2017 they learned how to lift the fence and leave the park. We brought them back few times, but then gave up. Since we do not have what they are looking for we don’t really have the chance to keep them in anyway. Moreover at that year there been a governmental program on reintroduction of musk ox to the tundra region, roughly 300km north-west of the Park. So maybe they eventually found what they were looking for. 

In the past few years we been investigating the options to bring new musk ox for the park. But it hasn’t been the primary focus. Most of our resources and activity went to bring bison to the Pleistocene Park. 

Since 2019 we are working with the French-Russian film makers who are making a 90 minute documentary about the Pleistocene Park. They already visited Pleistocene Park few times and even filmed the horses trip this spring. However since there already been some movies made about the Park, Denis Snegirev the director of the movie managed to get money for the movie, promising the TV channels that he will be able to provide exclusive content.  And by “exclusive content” he of course ment some long and complicated animal expedition of ours. Bison trip happened before the start of the movie production and Denis been bugging me about any other possible cool opportunities. He was aware of our musk ox trip (I wrote a big diary about our expedition back then – in Russian) and asked me few times if I would be willing to go to Wrangel Island again. I said - “Denis, no, you don’t want to go there, way too dangerous and too complicated to organize”. However I started thinking about it. Then Denis with his Russian producer told me that they can try to contact the head of the Wrangel National reserve to get agreement with him about possibility to film and to catch musk ox for the Park (as I understand island population is growing and hitting its limits almost every year). I was still skeptical of the idea, but agreed for their communication. So in March Denis called me and said that they got principal agreement to make an expedition in September. Of course there is still a lot to be done, and many permissions got to be obtained in the first hand, plus expedition is still a very expensive activity. 

Shortly after the agreement with the Wrangel island, COVID came in full strength, all international travel closed, and it became clear that there will  be no visitors on our research station, making it complicated for me even to maintain the park, not talking about investing money into the big animal expedition. So Denis and me will have to find external funding for the expedition

Problem that the regular way to take musk ox from the Island requires 3 charters of helicopter from Pevek and the expedition budget is going way above 200,000 usd. I am really skeptical that Denis will be able to raise the required amounts of money. 

The good thing about COVID and quarantines (yes, it is very hard to find a good thing about it, but natural optimist-me managed) is that with no visitors on the station, this spring I ended up sitting at home for a few days, realizing that this entire year I might end up hibernating, with no station or Park development and this perspective I found way more frightening than the 1000km on a little old boat in the Arctic Ocean. So basically within a couple of days the plan solidified. 

So, enough with the background, will explain the plan

As I already said the principal agreement with the Wrangel officials been obtained. So now we have 3 months to get all the official permissions from the federal and state agencies. Will start working on that in the beginning of June.

Big issue is of course the expedition itself. It is a rather complicated route and we have to come up with relatively reasonable and safe travel options. 

10 years ago our main boat was a slow 13 meter long fishing, boat, and a 8 meter long plastic Yamaha boat which we towed behind us as a backup (check images above). The bad side of the main boat was that it was very slow (if I remember right, we drove around 8km/hour. So a one way journey took 6-7 days. In the Arctic it is very hard to catch 6-7 days straight with good weather, And it is even harder to catch such a long periods twice in a row (for the trip to and from the Island). So this time I came up with the conclusion that we need to go on a much faster boats which would allow us to go from our home town Cherskii to Pevek (sea port in the Arctic ocean half way to the Wrangel island) in one day, and also in 1 day from Pevek to the Wrangel Island. Current weather forecasts are quiet good for the 48 hours ahead, and we would be able to drive on a reasonable weather and storm conditions. 

For the safety reasons, expedition must consist of two boats, which would allow to carry entire expedition crew (if will be required). On the Wrangel island there is no gasoline available, so both vehicles should have diesel engines.  

Our old Yamaha boat in principal fit into the required parameters. It already travelled to the Wrangel island (even though it was mostly towed back then) and didn’t sink. It can go over 40km/hour (minimum required speed for the quick drive between the travel points), and it can carry all the expedition crew. Probably even some baby musk ox on top of that, though it will be a dense packed deck). Problem is that the engine of this boat is way too old and unreliable and we stopped using it even for the local travel around the station. However after a few hours browsing in the internet I realized that for a relatively reasonable sum we can buy used engines of this type in a good condition in Vladivostok. As I understand people import used boats from japan and sell them in parts. So all I needed to do is to find a Vladivostok company which does it, check the engine, buy it and find the transport route for this engine to arrive to Cherskii over the course of the summer 2020. With this first part of the plan I am already half way through. Engine is bought and it is now on some big cargo ship travelling from Vladivostok to Magadan. From there it will be put with some other cargo of some local businessmen and later travel 500 km on gravel road to Seimchan (river port on the Kolyma) and then 1500km along the Kolyma to Cherskii. I haven’t yet figured out how exactly the engine will travel and who will be this “lucky” businessman, but I am sure we will sort something out. In Cherskii we (mainly our mechanic Sasha) will throw out the old engine, put the new one, do all the minor fixes for the boat and get it ready to go for September expedition. Approximately maintenance will take around a week. But since the summer will not be too busy, I am sure we will handle the problem.

Now few words about the crew of the expedition. At the moment I see the following candidates. 

1. Myself

2. My dad

3. The filming team consisting of two people, Denis (director/sound) and Dmitry (cameraman), 

4. My friend Yaroslav (local from Cherskii who has big experience in all sort of arctic travel) who will be assisting on the island in catching the musk ox.

5. Taras Sipko, probably the main specialist in musk ox and all kind of bison in Russia. He spent big portion of his life transporting animals between national park. In the expedition he will lead the catchment (tranquilization) of baby musk ox. He will be joining our Expedition from Pevek where he will arrive from Moscow. 

6. Potentially there will be 7th person in the crew. Since Denis has not secured the funding for the expedition yet, we may have a person, who would be joining the expedition for taking a share in the expedition expenses. 

And now to the most actual part of the plan. 

Originally I was thinking about renting the second boat somewhere around Cherskii. But there is really few boats (if any) which fit into the required parameters, and the owners might not be very happy to rent the boat to go to Wrangel island. Have to admit that not that many people I talked with said that my plan is reasonable, or would want to join us. So looks like renting is not an option. So we have to buy the second boat as well. Browsing on the internet I found a very good option for the second boat (at least I now think that it is a very good option). Couple of weeks ago I found that there is a boat for sale in Magadan. It is similar to our first boat. It is also Yamaha, it also has stationary diesel engine. It is slightly longer. It doesn’t have a passenger deck, but has quite a lot of space on the front and back of the boat. It is now owned by a local who runs mechanic shop and who planned to use the boat to go fishing in Okhotsk sea, but accidentally became the father of twins at the age of 46. So now his plans for fishing became quiet distant. I already have the agreement with him and said that I will be coming in late May to pick it up. So last two weeks he spent putting the boat together and sending me the videos of the progress. My plan is to get to Magadan, buy the boat, load it on the trailer, transport to Seimchan and drive the boat down the Kolyma to the station. If everything is good entire expedition will take about a week.  If you wonder where I am within my plan – I am sitting on the half empty airplane from Yakutsk to Novosibirsk with the 12 hour connection to Magadan, I have a 20 thousand dollars worth of rouble cash in the backpack and morally getting ready to become the owner of the boat.

So this is a draft plan to bring musk ox to the Pleistocene Park this spring. I would want to think that this is a full proof plan, but I think it is one of the most complex plans I ever made, and there is a a lot uncertainties and many things can go wrong. Below I decided to put together all the potential problems which may arise in the plan:

1. Of course on top of everything I will put COVID. Apart from direct threat it also put lots of restrictions on travel, many organization doesn’t work, financial crisis make us less likely to find enough money, and overall problem of climate change is now not the hottest topic

2. Funding for the expedition. Mostly it is Denis who is dealing with it. From my side I will probably invest what we will gather at Patreon by september. But it is still a minor portion. For the engine and the boat I am now investing my own money, but those I would need for the maintenance of the Park and the station for the upcoming year. So in case Denis will not find enough money, we will end up having no money, no musk ox and two boats for sale in Cherskii. 

3. Governmental permissions for musk ox transportation. For me it is still very unclear how the Russian beaurocracy work. In the past we always been successful with getting permissions. But musk ox belongs to the government and it may make things a bit more complicated. I actually fear this problem the most. Other problems are more or less dependent on me and my skills. Here we will rely on the mercy of… don’t even know who is that person or group of people. 

4. First boat. It is a used engine and I really hope that I didn’t fell the victim of some fraud. Otherwise it will be quiet expensive to find more spare parts and get them in time to Cherskii. Also route from Vladivostok to Cherskii is complicated. Kolyma is navigable in the beginning of the summer, but later there can be not that many water, and engine might get stuck on the way somewhere.

5. Second boat. I really hope that boat is indeed in the good conditions. That its size is good for being transported on the trailer. That it really can drive as fast as I need, carrying as much as I need, at fuel economy which I need and can sustain the storm which we may experience. Also I really hope my driving skills are enough to take it through all the rough spots on the Kolyma. All this I will find out within the next week.

6. Another mention of COVID related issues. Denis is normally based in France. I hope he can make it in September to Cherskii. Same as any potential non-Russian sponcor

7. Taras has confirmed his intention to join us and I hope nothing will interfere in his plans. There isn’t too many people who has enough skills and permissions to catch musk ox on the Wrangel island. Also I do not share the full plan of the expedition with him. I am a bit afraid he might not be too happy to drive small boats from Pevek to Wrangel. So I hope to make it a surprise when it will be too late for him to cancel the tripJ 

8. Another permission issue, is the Russian border permission. We will be crossing the Russian border couple of times, and go along the border area, so we will have to obtain the permission. I also think that there shouldn’t be too many issues. But of the unknown to me is that in Pevek bay since recently based world first and only floating nuclear station. Not sure any security will be happy for some crazy, musk-ox starving scientists to cruise around.

9. Expedition itself. It is a 1000km in the Arctic Ocean. There might be storm, or ice or both, and many other problems. We have experience, and we will be prepared as much as possible for everything, but still it is complicated

10. Musk ox catchin. It is the big island, and no one guarantee that we will be able to find musk ox herds; that there will be babies; that we will be able to come close; tranquilize; transport back; that animals will be of both genders; that there will be no polar bears interfering etc. 

So to sum up. It is going to be a complicated expedition and we are totally not certain that we will succeed. But the only way to make it done is to start following the plan. Since at the moment this is the best/only plan we got. 

All the best

Nikita