The Crestone Eagle, May 2007:

Those aren’t antelope, they’re pronghorns!
by Keno

One kind of wildlife that the northern part of the San Luis Valley has plenty of is the antelope. Well actually, there are no true wild antelope in our Valley at all, nor anywhere else in Colorado. For that matter, there are no wild antelope to be found in the United States, either. Reason being is that antelope are not native to the US; they are only found in Africa and in parts of Europe.

So what are those creatures that we see once in a while off of T Road anyway? They are pronghorn (Antilocapra americana), and are also known as the pronghorn antelope. They are not related to the antelope at all. Pronghorn are distantly related to goats (sometimes they are called “prairie goats” or “speed goats”), but early settlers dubbed them “antelope” because of their close resemblance to the African antelope. This country’s pronghorn is a unique animal with no true close relatives; they are the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae.

Pronghorn are the fastest mammals in the western hemisphere, with the ability to run up to 60 miles per hour, and they are the second-fastest land animal in the world, second only to the cheetah. They also have excellent eyesight, with the ability to see a predator (or a hunter) almost two miles away. Their very large set of eyes are said to be the equivalent of 8X binoculars, and have a 320° field of vision.

Both the males and the females have horns which are more straight rather than pronged, with the female’s horns smaller (1”-6” long) than the males’ (5”-17” long). The horns are made up of a hair- like substance that grows around a bony core; the outer part is shed annually.

The pronghorn’s range extends from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada to Sonora and Baja California in Mexico. They live on both sides of the Rocky Mountains, with the eastern limit of their range generally being the Missouri River. They live primarily in grasslands, but also in brushland and deserts. Small bands of the animals will live together in the summer months, while in the winter they gather into larger herds.

In Colorado, you will find them on the eastern plains, in the larger mountain parks and valleys, and on shrublands west of the mountains. There are around 50,000 pronghorn in Colorado, with around a half million in the entire U.S. Yet just after the turn of the 20th Century they were nearly extinct because of unregulated hunting, with their numbers only around 20,000. Today the pronghorn is once again a big game animal, with annual licensed harvest of about 8,000 animals.

In the San Luis Valley, as of last year’s count, there were 1,300 pronghorn in the northern end alone, with T-Road being the farthest south most of them wander. However, there are some that do reside farther south, with the total number of pronghorn residing in the entire Valley at just under 1,900. If you live in the Grants, you will likely see them passing by your home. They do avoid the foothills and mountains. On the west side of the Valley, according to Ron Rivele of the Department of Wildlife, they can be spotted in Saguache Park, since the land’s rise in the foothills isn’t as steep.

Pronghorn eat cacti, grasses, and browse plants. They breed in mid-September, and the doe carries her fawn until late May. Newborns weigh 5-9 lbs. Adult males weigh 100-145 lbs. while females weigh 75-100 lbs. The main color of adults is reddish or tan, with 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.

Wolves, coyotes and bobcats are their major predators. Golden eagles have been reported to prey on fawns. The average lifespan of the pronghorn is 7 to 10 years, although a few are believed to live up to 14 years.

So the next time one of these goat-like animals drop by your front yard for a visit, or you see one while out for a drive, remember, they are not antelope, so you shouldn’t call then such. Yet I bet you still will, I do myself, and the DOW even lists them sometimes as antelope. This is more than likely why the name pronghorn antelope has stuck, even if officially their isn’t such an animal, they are simply just pronghorns, and nothing else.

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