There’s nothing like a pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana). I mean it. Literally. Nothing. The sole survivor of its biological family, its closest relatives are the giraffe and okapi. It’s not even a real antelope.
What it is, is FAST! The Pronghorn is the second fastest animal in the world, surpassed only by the cheetah. But the cheetah is a sprinter, while the pronghorn is a marathon runner. Over longer distances, the pronghorn is the clear winner.
A lot of pronghorns run marathons twice a year. Migration. In North America, only caribou travel farther. Some pronghorns migrate over 200 miles from their winter range to their summer range.
As you can imagine, the antelope run into some serious challenges. One is fences. Pronghorns are built to run fast, not jump. Fenced off ranch lands and fences along highways often hinder their migration. Groups like the National Wildlife Federation and the Arizona Antelope Foundation are working with ranchers to make barbed wire fences more antelope friendly. An antelope friendly barbed wire fence stands 14 inches off the ground, with no barbs on the bottom strand. The antelope can then crawl UNDER the fence.
Another issue confronting the antelope is habitat fragmentation due to oil and gas development. The State of Wyoming, Fish & Wildlife Service, and various non-profits and land trusts have partnered to protect the pronghorn, forming the Upper Green River Valley Coalition. They have created the Path of the Pronghorn, safeguarding the main migration route from the Red Desert to the Grand Tetons through conservation easements on private land along the route.The State of Wyoming even built some wildlife overpasses along the main Green River migration route to help the antelope on their journey.
But the path is narrow. In one spot, Trapper’s Point, the trail bottlenecks down to only half a mile due to oil and gas, housing development and a highway.
Now the antelope face a new challenge. What happens when a land owner decides to ignore the conservation easement already in place when he bought the land?
If you’d like to learn more about this new challenge for the pronghorn, check out this article in the High Country News.
