Pronghorn antelope

[ ANTILOCAPRA AMERICANA ]

The long winter of nibbling on resinous, barely palatable sagebrush is over. Sweet grass stems poke up now and fill bellies. The trials and battles of courtship are months behind, and, for females, the birth of fawns is still several months away. There’s nothing for a pronghorn antelope to do at this time of spring but roam the wilds of northeastern California’s high desert plains and graze languidly in large social groups. Because pronghorns have exceptionally keen eyesight and appear to delight in running up to 60 miles per hour, they fear very few predators. Even the more vulnerable fawns run with the herd soon after birth.

NATURAL HISTORY

Until the 1800s, vast herds of pronghorn were a defining feature of California’s open spaces, including what is now the Antelope Valley area of Los Angeles County. Hunters decimated the population, although in recent decades pronghorn have rebounded, numbering in the thousands.

KEY CHARACTERISTICS

A leggy, deer-like creature with black spiky horns and a large white rump patch; found in wide open spaces.