OUTDOOR KIDS: Powerful Pronghorn

Wildlife Express, Idaho Department of Fish & Game Have you seen a pronghorn in Idaho? If you did, you were most likely not in the northern part of our state. Pronghorns are animals that like wide open spaces. They are usually found on grasslands and shrubby areas where the plants don't get much over two feet high. Pronghorns love the sagebrush in southern Idaho. This is their main source of food in the winter. In the summer, they will also eat soft-stemmed plants, like wildflowers. They don't like to eat much grass. You may also hear people call pronghorn "antelope". Pronghorns may look like the antelope that roam the African plains, but they are really very different animals. Pronghorns are in the family Antilocapridae (an-tilo-CAP-ri-day). They are the only member of this family. They have no close relatives. Pronghorns are beautiful animals. Their upper bodies are pale tan to reddish tan. Their sides, bellies, insides of the legs, and rump are white. They have two broad white bands across their throats. Both the males and females have horns, but the females' horns are short; they are about four inches long. The males' horns are longer, being 12 to 20 inches long. They also have a forward pointing, short branch called a "prong." This is where the name pronghorn came from. The males also have a black band on the snout and black neck patch that the females do not have. Pronghorns are small compared to other hoofed animals. The males weigh between 90 to 140 pounds; females weigh between 75 to 105 pounds. Pronghorns are the fastest animals on North America. They can run 45 miles-per-hour over a long period of time. That doesn't mean they don't have predators though. Coyotes eat more pronghorns than any other animal. Bobcats are also predators that might catch a young pronghorn. Catching a healthy adult pronghorn is no easy feat. They have excellent hearing and a good sense of smell. But their eyesight is amazing. A pronghorn's eyeball is about one and one-half inches in diameter. That's the size of a horse's eye. Pronghorns can see something moving when it is up to four miles away. You might say they have built-in binoculars. Though pronghorns can detect a moving object miles away, they may ignore a person standing still just 50 feet away. Things need to move for a pronghorn to see it. When pronghorns spot danger, they have a way to warn other pronghorns. They stick up the white hairs on their rumps. On a bright day, the signal may be seen for miles. This is a cue for other pronghorns to do what they do best: run. Keep an eye out for pronghorns. They have been known to be playful at times. Pronghorns have even raced vehicles driving on roads through their habitat. This article was taken from the December 2007 issue of the Idaho Fish and Game Wildlife Express.