Their closest genetic relatives are goats. Their long hair, shoulder humps, and sloping backs make muskoxen appear larger than they really are. In fact, muskoxen are smaller in stature than caribou, although they weigh more. The bulls stand about a metre and a half at the shoulder and are more than two metres long. They weigh about 340 kilograms.
Cows are smaller and lighter.
The long, coarse outer hair hides a soft underfur called quiviut that is shed in the spring and early summer. Quiviut is highly prized for yarn-making. Apart from their differing sizes, you can tell a bull muskox from a cow by its horns, Cooley says. On bulls, the horns come together into a massive plate that covers the forehead. Cow horns don't meet in the middle, and usually there's a tuft of hair on the forehead between the horns.