Man cited after shooting, wounding pregnant musk ox

A Western Alaska man repeatedly shot a musk ox in the head with a small-caliber rifle last month and left the animal wounded, according to Alaska Wildlife Troopers who charged the man with a pair of misdemeanors on Tuesday.
The shooting occurred April 11 just outside the Kuskokwim Bay village of Kwigillingok. At the request of a public safety officer, another villager killed the animal.
The musk ox later turned out to be pregnant, troopers said.
"It's doubly tragic," said wildlife trooper Michael Cresswell, by phone from Bethel. "It's really two musk ox that were killed."
Kwigillingok resident Jonathan Friend, 27, faces two misdemeanors: hunting in a closed area and using an illegal method, troopers said.
The bullets from Friend's gun -- a .22-caliber rifle -- were too small to legally hunt musk ox, Cresswell said.
Some villagers on snowmachines were watching and taking pictures of two groups of musk ox when Friend opened fire, Cresswell said.
"There was a large amount of blood, and (the animal) went to the ground and didn't die. But it didn't get back up," Cresswell said.
Three days later, Cresswell and a wildlife biologist performed a necropsy on the animal and found an unborn musk ox inside.
"It was about five days from being born," Cresswell said.
The musk ox meat was donated to charity, troopers said.

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Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.