Pronghorn Antelopes

Album

Pronghorn Antelopes

Page Type: Album

Image Type(s): Wildlife

Page By: Arthur Digbee

Created/Edited: Oct 2, 2007 / May 28, 2008

Object ID: 343247

Hits: 890

Page Score: 88.84% - 12 Votes

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Pronghorns

Pronghorns are in their own family, the Antilocapridae. They’re related one way or another to cows, musk-oxen, Old World antelopes, giraffes, deer, and the ovids (sheep and goats). How that relationship works, exactly, is a bit of a mystery to biologists.

For example, deer have antlers that they shed each year, while giraffes have bony, permanent horns covered in skin. Bovidae (cows and others) have permanent bony horn cores covered by sheaths. Based on horns, pronghorns don’t fit any of these families, keeping their sheaths for 2-5 years and then shedding them - - so some experts group them in a superfamily with the cows, while others put them in a supergroup with the deer (Cervidae).

If it were just the horns, the taxonomists might have reached a solution, but it turns out the pronghorn is weird in many other ways. Olaus Murie once called the pronghorn “a Giraffe-hoofed, Sheep-haired, Deer-headed, Goat-glanded Antelope.”

That description will have to do.

Pronghorns are also unique in surviving the great extinctions of the Pleistocene that knocked off most of North America’s large mammals - - giant sloths, mastodons and mammoths, dire wolves, sabre-toothed tigers, horses, camels, giant beavers, and all the rest. They are survivors, and a reminder of what North America looked like before grizzlies, bison, moose and gray wolves arrived from Eurasia.

Though once threatened with extinction, pronghorns are now common in many areas through the West. Wyoming has more pronghorns than people. They are creatures of the high prairies, not the mountains - - the floor of Jackson Hole, at about 6800 feet, is the upper limit of their range.

They are the world's second-fastest land mammal, after the cheetah.

Images

Pronghorn Antelopes

Speedy Pronghorn

Pronghorn Buck

Proghorn Antelope are

Proghorn poser

Running Pronghorn Buck

Curious Pronghorn Doe

Pronghorn

Pronghorn Doe

Pronghorn in snowy eastern CO

Pronghorn skeleton

Pronghorn Antelope

Pronghorn in Badlands NP

Pronghorn

Pronghorn antelope near Vedauwoo

Comments

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Viewing: 1-5 of 5

OlympicMtnBoy

Cool album

Voted 10/10

I love these creatures. It must be hard to get a good shot of them. Their so fast. Thanks for sharing.

Posted Oct 2, 2007 9:10 am


	Arthur Digbee	Re: Cool album
	Hasn't voted	Thanks! They mostly stand still, so those shots are easy. The one moving shot here involved a very cooperative pronghorn moving left to right at a constant distance (and focus).
		Posted Oct 3, 2007 11:03 am

tarol

One of my favorite animals

Voted 10/10

I've heard their two closest relatives DNA wise are giraffe and okapi. I saw them all the time when I lived in Laramie, WY. Have also seen them in eastern Oregon and central California.

Posted Oct 2, 2007 10:08 pm


	Arthur Digbee	Re: One of my favorite animals
	Hasn't voted	The DNA info could be correct -- genetics are shaking up a lot of taxonomies these days, and giraffes and okapis were already on the list of "suspects" for pronghorn relatives. Or we can just appreciate them for their uniqueness. :)
		Posted Oct 3, 2007 11:02 am

Dean

Fastest animal on ..

Voted 10/10

...the American continent. I've seen these awesome animals in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah.I must have seen 30 of these animals last saturday as I traveled from Lehi Utah to out in the western Utah desert along the Pony Express road. Here's a nice link to some additional information

Posted Apr 29, 2008 9:36 pm

Viewing: 1-5 of 5