Though cheetahs can run faster in a sprint, pronghorns are fleeter over long distances. They can maintain thirty to forty miles over several miles, and can run even faster over short distances. They even race cars! As adapted as they are to the unbroken prairie, pronghorns have difficulty dealing with fences. They hesitate jumping over them, and instead tend to crawl under them if possible.
Pronghorn Identification and History
Not true antelopes, pronghorns do not have permanent, hollow, unbranched horns. Instead their black horns include a projecting "prong" and fall off every year, revealing a bony core. Five subspecies exist in the western United States grasslands, ranging from southern Canada to northern Mexico. Extremely abundant before white explorers and settlers arrived, pronghorns suffered great losses from hunting and change of habitat. With management and hunting regulations, their numbers have risen once again.
Pronghorn Physiology
Pronghorns' eyes are very large, two inches in diameter, bigger than even horses' eyes, and almost as big as elephants'. Eyesight is most important, more critical than good hearing or sense of smell. The body of a pronghorn is only about the size of a sheep's, but its neck and legs are longer. Generally adults weigh between 105 and 120 pounds, and stand three feet high at the shoulder. This small body is designed for survival. Very coarse hair stands erect in the summer's heat, allowing for air circulation, and lays flat in winter, like shingles on a roof. Each hollow hair has a spongy, airy filling.
What enables pronghorns to run so fast? A relatively large windpipe and larger lungs take in three times the amount of oxygen as similarly sized animals. An oversized heart and muscle packed with mitochondria help too, as well as a large liver for quick glycogen. Their hooves have special cartilage padding, acting as a shock absorber.
Pronghorn Diet
On the prairie pronghorns eat many forbs and shrubs, like sagebrush; some cacti, including the spines; and a little bit of grass. Though they do drink, some can go without water. Because of their food choices, they do not compete with bison or cattle; in fact, bison helped the pronghorn by keeping grass short and helping forbs grow.
Pronghorn Behavior
Pronghorns are social creatures, gathering in large groups in winter and separating into herds come summer, when bucks gather groups of does and fawns and bachelor bucks form roving bands. They are most active during the day, especially at dawn and dusk, sleeping intermittently for short naps.
Pronghorn Lifespan, Predators and Defense
Though they live to around nine years of age, many pronghorns die as fawns. Coyotes and wolves are their main predators, but accidents and winter hardships take their toll also. Flight is of course their best defense, and as pronghorns run in herds the moving pattern formed may confuse a predator. It is then difficult for the predator to focus on just one individual. Bright white rump patches warn other antelope of danger. New pronghorn fawns are just about odorless, and lie very still and well camouflaged. At just four days of age they can outrun a man, and at about three weeks join the herd.
References include Pronghorn: Portrait of the American Antelope by Gary Turbak
Sophie Cayless - For the past ten years Sophie has worked as a freelance author and illustrator, writing and illustrating the children's book Beaver Tales ...
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