Muskox spotted south of Tombstone Territorial Park

At first, she thought it was a grizzly bear.

"I saw this big brown animal on the road so I slowed down and as I approached it it still didn't move," said Gladys Alexie of Fort McPherson, N.W.T., who was driving down the Dempster Highway this week. "So I stopped and it turned around and it was a muskox."

Alexie was south of Tombstone Territorial Park when she saw the animal. She managed to snap a few pictures before the animal walked into the woods.

She says she was surprised to see it so far south.

Muskox, more common in Canada's High Arctic islands,are rarely seen south of the treeline, but Todd Powell with Environment Yukon says sightings aren't unheard of.

"Periodically they do show up in odd places," says Todd Powell of Environment Yukon. "It's pretty far south for a muskox, but bull muskox like to take walkabouts like any other bulls."

He suspects this particular bull was just interested in exploring.

"There's no phenomenon driving muskox movement that we've observed."

Muskox are usually found on Yukon's North slope and along the Mackenzie River.

But Powell says another one was spotted near Tombstone last September.

He says wildlife officials will keep watch to see if a pattern develops.