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Hunt Opens For Muskox Stranded On Triangle Island

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

A muskox is stranded on Triangle Island, a small piece of land about three miles north of Nunivak Island. There’s little food and no fresh water on the small island. And the state doesn’t expect the animal to survive for long.

Beginning Saturday, a special permit hunt will open. Whoever can get a permit and out to the island can harvest the muskox.

Fish and Game biologist Patrick Jones says the animal most likely floated over from the herd on Nunivak Island.

“And just with the logistics and cost of us trying to get out there to save it, it just makes a lot more sense to allow somebody the extra opportunity to harvest.”

A hunter from Mekoryuk spotted the muskox on Wednesday but didn’t get close enough to see if it was a bull or cow.

The most likely way to get the animal would be to boat from Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island. But Acting Tribal Administrator, Dale Smith, says no boats will be leaving the harbor or another week or two.

“It has broken up ice. The ocean is pretty much ice free. It’s just this shore ice that’s clinging close to the land here.”

The hunt ends in June, but biologist Patrick Jones doesn’t think the animal will survive that long.

Permits will be issued with no tag fees in the Bethel Fish and Game office and in Mekoryuk.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.