Elon Muskox returns outside Yellowknife’s City Hall
An 11-foot horticultural muskox gifted to Yellowknife by Québec last year has returned for the summer in a stunning new coat.
The muskox made its first appearance in November, in a rugged, wintry coat of earthen grasses.
After its withdrawal for a makeover in the spring, Cabin Radio uncovered the beast looking rejuvenated inside an Arctic Farmer greenhouse last week.
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The muskox was placed back in its former haunt – on guard outside Yellowknife’s City Hall – on Thursday morning.
Unanticipated Gift Muskox: Summer 2019 Edition is a far more colourful animal, boasting a healthy reddish glow to the complexion.
The muskox’s coat is now a luscious green with blooms of purple, white, and red.
The monument was christened “Elon Muskox” in a competition somehow won by a Florida resident late last year. It began life as an attraction at MosaïCanada – a hugely successful Canada 150 exhibition inside Gatineau’s Parc Jacques-Cartier – in 2017.
The muskox then made an encore Gatineau appearance in 2018 before being offered up by the organizers, Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal, to the Northwest Territories as a gift.
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The territorial government accepted and passed the animal to the City of Yellowknife.
Cabin Radio understands a City employee was sent south for specific training related to the animal’s horticultural upkeep, but staff have since elected to delegate the maintenance to Arctic Farmer – and the finished summer edition has a distinctly different feel to the grasses covering the muskox in previous years.
Yellowknife’s muskox, right, at the 2017 MosaiCanada 150 show in Gatineau. Viv Lynch/Flickr
The muskox outside City Hall in November 2018. Sarah Pruys/Cabin Radio
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How the muskox looked earlier this month, at Arctic Farmer. Ollie Williams/Cabin Radio
Elon Muskox stands in Yellowknife’s Somba K’e Park, just an hour after its triumphant return. Sarah Pruys/Cabin Radio
On Thursday morning, workers were filling in earth beneath the newly restored muskox. Sarah Pruys/Cabin Radio