Whatever we call them,
Antelope, or Pronghorns they are a fascinating animal found over most of Wyoming.
It was most likely Lewis and Clark who called this, only in America animal, an
antelope, that we owe this misnaming. Antelope are found only in Africa, our Wyoming
pronghorn is not related to these true antelope. The pronghorn is related to no
other animal on earth, an interesting distinction.
From Clark’s journal—Friday, September 14,
1804
"In my walk I killed a Buck Goat [antelope] of this country, about the height of the Grown Deer, its body Shorter... the Color is a light gray with black behind its ears down its neck
"In my walk I killed a Buck Goat [antelope] of this country, about the height of the Grown Deer, its body Shorter... the Color is a light gray with black behind its ears down its neck
And from Lewis’s Journal of—Monday, September
17, 1804
"We found the Antelope extremely
shy and watchful insomuch that we had been unable to get a shot at. I had this
day an opportunity of witnessing the agility and the superior fleetness of this
animal which was to me really astonishing.”
Still lots of pronghorn in Wyoming,
enough to support a very good hunting season each year and plenty to watch. Various
states have tried to move and put pronghorn in parks, but it has had limited,
at best, success. Seems that pronghorn need a large migratory range, and being
fenced, even within the boundaries of thousands of acres has not worked.
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