Pronghorn Watching

There were once 35 million pronghorn in North America. Today there are estimated to be between 750,000 and 1 million individuals.

Hello! I hope this email finds you doing well. I’m back from an extended sabbatical from the internet (and this newsletter), and I’m eager to resume writing in this space.

In this post, I share a handful of photographs and a few brief field notes from a recent excursion I made to the shortgrass prairies of northern Colorado, where I basked in wide-open spaces and gawked at pronghorn.

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BUCKEYE, COLORADO — Daylight savings time catches me off-guard, and so I’m an hour behind from the outset. But, undeterred, I gather my gear and toss it in the car. My drive takes me north and then west until suburbia yields to shortgrass prairie, paved roads give way to gravel. Here the golden landscape opens up before me and stretches to the foothills of the Front Range.

I drive slowly, watching out for wildlife. Fortunately, my vigilance pays off—a herd of pronghorn catches my eye. I pull to the side of the road and get out of the car slowly, quietly. But the pronghorn are alert and wary. They stop grazing, lift their heads, and stare.

An adult male pronghorn. Males grow long, curved horns (10-16 inches) with forward-facing prongs. Many females also grow horns, but theirs are shorter (1-2 inches) and lack prongs.

I look back at them through my telephoto lens, transfixed by their huge black eyes and long elegant eyelashes. Their gaze is mesmerizing. They inspect me for a moment and then form a single-file line and saunter away. They seem unimpressed.

Pronghorn have large, prominent eyes positioned at the edge of their face such that they have a 300-degree arc of vision. Their impressive peepers can spy motion up to 4 miles away, which explains why my clumsy movements so easily commanded their attention a mere quarter-mile away.

A watchful trio of pronghorn. Adult pronghorn have excellent vision and can sustain 45–50 mph speeds. Young pronghorn are slower and thus more vulnerable to predators.

During the winter, pronghorn feed on shrubs such as sagebrush and rabbitbrush. I scan the barren grassland before me and see no such shrubs for them to eat. I imagine how hungry the herd must be. Fortunately, spring is around the corner, so they will soon graze on a new buffet of succulent forbs and tender grass shoots (pronghorn typically do not dine on grasses at any other time of the year).

Glamour lashes. Pronghorn have long, thick eyelashes that help to protect their eyes from the intense western sunshine.

Blue skies have now turned chalky and overcast. A crisp, wintry breeze gushes down out of the mountains. The pronghorn turn their backs to the wind and head for the rolling terrain to the east. It’s time for me to leave too. I pack up my camera, return to my car, and drive on. Although I hope to see some more wildlife this afternoon, I doubt I’ll top the pronghorn herd.

Time to move on. The weather takes a turn, and the herd moves eastward.

References

• Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) Fact Sheet. San Diego (CA): San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Accessed Mar 14, 2022. http://ielc.libguides.com/sdzg/factsheets/pronghorn

• Pronghorn. National Park Service. Accessed Mar 14, 2022. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/pronghorn.htm

• Lindstedt, S., Hokanson, J., Wells, D. et al. Running energetics in the pronghorn antelope. Nature 353, 748–750 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/353748a0