Pronghorn

The pronghorn has been in North America for over a million years, living in the grasslands, brushlands and deserts ranging from Southern Canada to Northern Mexico.

The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere and second fastest in the world. It can run at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, and maintain speeds of 30-40 mph for several miles. Since the pronghorn’s ability to run at these speeds greatly exceeds that of all existing North American predators, it is suggested that pronghorn evolved now extinct predators such as the american cheetah.

After roaming the North American Continent for about a million years, by the 1920s, the pronghorn population had declined to its low of about 13,000 and it was felt that the extinction of the pronghorn was likely. Early efforts to increase their numbers were unsuccessful. Thanks in large part to the efforts of the Boone and Crockett Club, National Audubon Society, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order in 1936 creating a 549,000-acre pronghorn refuge in Northern Nevada, marking the beginning of the pronghorn recovery in North America. Due to hunting restrictions and protection of their habitat the pronghorn numbers are estimated to be around 1,000,000.

I was lucky enough to find this male in the North Dakota Badlands and follow him over the next few days. They are extremely skittish and it took me several days of following him at a respectful distance before he was comfortable enough with my presence to wander close enough for me to get off a few shots.