Pronghorns in Yellowstone National Park
The Pronghorn, also known as the American antelope, is the fastest land animal in North America and is capable of reaching speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. The meal of choice for this speedy herbivore is generally grass, sagebrush, and other vegetation.
Pronghorns have followed the same migration routes through Wyoming's Greater Yellowstone region for more than 6,000 years. The animals' 100-mile seasonal journey is the longest land-mammal migration in the continental United States and is second only to the Arctic caribou's trek for long-distance migration in the Western Hemisphere.
Pronghorn are found mainly in the Northern section of the park. One of the best places to spot them is the one-way dirt road that runs from Mammoth Hot Spring to Gardiner. There are almost always some at the Northeast entrance station near Gardiner. Also look for them on the road between Mammoth Hot Spring and Tower Junction and in the Lamar Valley area.
Pronghorns (Antilocapra Americana)
Bands of pronghorns live in open grasslands, forming small single-sex groups in spring and summer, and gathering into large mixed herds, sometimes up to 1,000 strong, in the fall and winter. Adult males (bucks) are four to five feet long from nose to tail and stand around three feet high at the shoulder, and weigh 88-132 pounds. The females (does) are as long and tall, but average slightly less for weight.
The main color of an adult pronghorn is reddish-brown or tan with a short tail, a white rump and belly, and two white stripes on the throat. A short dark mane grows along the neck, and males also sport a black mask and black patches on the sides of the neck. When startled they raise the hair on their rumps to display a white warning patch that can be seen for miles.
Both sexes sport impressive, backward-curving horns. The horns split to form forward-pointing prongs that give the species its name. Some animals have horns that are more than a foot long. The horns of males are well developed; in females, they are either small, misshapen, or absent.
Mating season for the pronghorns begins in mid-September in the dry open areas. Bucks will gather harems of females and protect them jealously—sometimes battling rivals in spectacular and dangerous fights. The doe gives birth to one or two young in late May. Newborn pronghorns weigh four to eight pounds and can outrun a human after just a few days.
Sexual maturity is reached at 15 to 16 months, though males rarely breed until they are three years old. A pronghorn can live up to 10 years, rarely 15 years.
Pronghorns and Native American Cultures
The Cree called pronghorn "small caribou;" the Yankton Sioux named it "small deer." To the Ogallala Sioux, pronghorn were "pale deer." Pronghorns symbolize speed, effectiveness and quickness of mind and body. Those of us who have a pronghorn for a totem are often adaptable, efficient and skillful at what they do. A pronghorn totem can teach us to thrive in even the most difficult of situations and find multiple solutions to a problem by looking at it in new and innovative ways.
There is s a Blackfeet legend that tells how the pronghorn came to live on the prairie. The Blackfeet god “Old Man” created the antelope on the slopes of the Rockies, but when he turned the animal loose, its great speed caused it to stumble and fall on the rocks and fallen timber of the mountains. So “Old Man” moved the pronghorn to the prairie, where it was content.
And so it was that, along with the bison, the pronghorn ruled the plains. For eons these twin monarchs coexisted with each other in a mutually beneficial relationship.
While bison preferred prairie grasses, pronghorn ate the broad-leafed plants (or forbs), sagebrush, and shrubs. Grazing by bison allowed the remaining forbs to grow and develop. So pronghorn moved in the wake of the buffalo, eating the flourishing forbs that were left behind.
Over the centuries, great bands of pronghorn trailed immense herds of bison, season after season, year after year, in one of the prairie's great natural cycles.
Pronghorns Past and Present
Up to 40 million pronghorns used to roam North America, but hunting and the settlement of the West reduced their numbers to as few as 20,000 at the end of the 19th century. There are about 5000 present in the Yellowstone Park area today.
Pronghorns spend their summers high in the mountains within the national park and when fall comes, they must migrate to lower elevation areas that receive less snow in order to survive. Those trapped in the park over the winter usually perish.
The pronghorn's ancient routes between calving and wintering grounds are in danger from human development, and the future of Yellowstone's pronghorn herd is uncertain. The pronghorn at one time had eight different migration routes that allowed them to travel from Grand Teton National Park to just north of Yellowstone National Park. Now only two of these routes remain, and both paths include bottlenecks that vary from 328 to 2,000 feet wide. One of these, the bottleneck at Trapper's Point was once 6,562 feet wide before development caused it to slim down.
The Wildlife Conservation Society has called for permanent protection of their migration corridor, known as "Path of the Pronghorn," to prevent the animals from going extinct in the Park. Representatives from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and U.S. Forest Service recently pledged support for protecting the corridor.
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