Beijing Zoo Gift Musk Ox from the US

Deer Forest2 · 18 May 2014

Beijing Zoo received four Musk Oxen from the US.

The first pair:
Arrived on April 9th 1972, gift from President Nixon, escorted by the director of Washington Zoo.

The second pair:
Arrived on March 22nd 1988, gift from United States Department of the Interior.

Gift Musk Oxen from United States Department of the Interior

UngulateNerd92 · 23 Oct 2015

Very interesting thread! How did the Musk oxen (Ovibos moschatus) do at Beijing Zoo? and did any breeding occur?

I am also curious about their diet, last time they were kept at the zoo, the specific subspecies represented in the zoos collection, and the part of the zoo they were held (area and specific enclosure)?

I also know that Musk oxen don't seem to handle high temperatures very well, and as far as I understand, Beijing can get pretty warm and humid during summer months, so I wonder how that worked out for them

Chlidonias · 23 Oct 2015

here are a few interesting links

Beijing Zoo Gets 2 U.S. Oxen to Replace Pair Given by Nixon - latimes

23 May 1988

U.S. officials formally presented the Beijing Zoo with two Alaskan musk oxen today as a Georgia woman who first suggested the gift beamed fondly at the shaggy animals.

Four-year-old Tanana, a female, and 3-year-old Koyuk stood with lowered heads in their outdoor enclosure as a horde of diplomats, wildlife experts and reporters gathered on the other side of the fence.

"They're beautiful," Helen Miller, 65, of Moultrie, Ga., said of the 300-pound animals.

Miller began campaigning in 1980 for the United States to present two musk oxen to China. She felt it was a matter of "national honor" to replace two U.S. animals, given to China in 1972 by President Richard M. Nixon, that had died of old age.
Click to expand...

CHINA FORMALLY RECEIVES 2 ENVOYS - MUSK OXEN | Deseret News

23 May 1988

An American woman's eight-year campaign to renew former president Richard Nixon's gift to China ended Monday as U.S. officials presented the Beijing Zoo with two new woolly ambassadors.

The goodwill couple, Alaskan musk oxen Koyuk and Tanana, were formally given as gifts to China - after enduring two months of quarantine confinement and medical treatment - during a morning ceremony at the capital zoo.The presentation capped a nearly eight-year campaign by Helen Miller, 65, of Moultrie, Ga., that began with the deaths of two earlier musk oxen - Milton and Matilda - given to China by Nixon.

"I had heard that Chinese children were so saddened by their deaths (and) came to the zoo only to find their bridge of friendship with the United States wasn't there any more," she said.

"That bridge is worth repairing," said Miller, who wrote nearly 700 letters and contacted Vice President George Bush and U.S. Ambassador to China Winston Lord during her campaign.

The ceremony also ended a five-year "panda gap" in Sino-American relations during which native American wildlife was not formally represented at the Beijing Zoo. China has been represented during that time by Ling Ling and Xing Xing, the giant pandas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
Click to expand...

Panda for muskox | The Return of Native Nordic Fauna

1 March 2014

On February 23rd, a pair of pandas named Xing Hui and Hao Hao arrived in Belgium to much pomp and circumstance, including a visit from the Belgian Prime Minister. The pair have been “loaned” (really “rented” since Belgium is paying around $1 million per year to China for them) for 15 years. This is the latest “panda diplomacy” move by China which uses panda exchanges as a way of cementing relationships with diplomatic and trading partners. It all started with a gift to the Soviet Union in 1957, but the most famous panda “gift” was Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing loaned to the US when President Richard Nixon visited in 1972.

What many people don’t know is that the pandas given to the US in 1972 were actually a counter-gift: the pandas were gifted as a response to a US offer of a pair of muskoxen.

In preparation for Nixon’s visit to China, the US delegation decided to take a pair of muskoxen as a major gift. It seems that China had expressed interest in getting muskoxen from North America for display in the Peking zoo. To oblige, the US arranged to donate a pair of muskoxen named Milton and Matilda who were living at the San Francisco zoo. Milton and Matilda had been born at the zoo and were believed to be the only ones born in captivity in the US (their parents had been imported from a Canadian game farm in 1965).

According to a news report on 22 February 1972, during a dinner in China, Lin Yu-hua, curator of the Peking Zoo, told First Lady Pat Nixon that the Chinese were so pleased that the US was sending the muskoxen that China would offer them two pandas.

On the US side, it was unclear which zoo would get the pandas. A number of zoos appeared to be contenders, including San Francisco which had provided the muskoxen for the exchange. In the end, the pandas went to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., much to the disappointment of the other zoos with claims on them.

Milton and Matilda arrived in China in early April 1972, a week before the pandas reached the US. But things started off on the wrong foot. News reports from the end of April claimed that the muskoxen had started to loose their hair because of a skin disease and that the Chinese public was extremely disappointed. After all, muskoxen are known for their long wooly coat. Luckily by August, the rash had been cured–according to the zoo keeper Ou Wang Kan after bathing several times in Chinese herbal medicine.

In spite of the initial recovery, the muskoxen did not last long. Milton died 20 February 1975 after swallowing a sharp object that punctured his stomach. I’m not sure what happened to Matilda, but by 1980, she too had died. In 1980, Helen Miller, a widow from Georgia, decided to take up a one-woman crusade to get muskoxen back in China. She successfully arranged for a pair of muskox to be donated by the University of Alaska, Koyuk and Tanana, who arrived in Beijing on 21 March 1988.

Now when you read about the cute and cuddly black and white pandas flying around the globe in “panda diplomacy”, you’ll know that shaggy brown muskoxen have been part of the same story.

And if you want to buy me a gift some time, how about sending me a used copy of the children’s book Milton and Matilda: The Muskoxen who went to China? I’m sure my daughters would love it. And I would too.
Click to expand...

The last story has a couple of comments attached to it as well, and a photo of Milton.

Log in or Sign up

Beijing Zoo Gift Musk Ox from the US

Deer Forest2 Member

UngulateNerd92 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Log in or Sign up

Beijing Zoo Gift Musk Ox from the US

Deer Forest2 Member

UngulateNerd92 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

Useful Searches