Quote of the Week, Perhaps a Bit Longer

"The biological community is a vast and complicated system for sharing and distributing the energy of the sun among a diversity of life forms." ~Martson Bates

3/18/10

Holy Antelope, Batman!

There are giant herds of pronghorn antelope (Antelocapra americana) all around the ranch and the north end of the Black Rock Desert right now. On every hike we've taken we've seen at least two herds, usually we see three or four. They are all over the place. I've seen herds of antelope before, but never in these numbers. One herd that ran by us had so many antelope that it seemed to take forever for them to cross our path.

Pronghorns are easily recognizable with their white rump and underside. Their back is a light brown/tan color and the males have a black muzzle, forehead and cheek patches. Both sexes have horns which shed annually. The males have longer horns than the females, whose horns only grow to about 2 inches in length or less, sometimes they don't grow at all. Male horns tend to grow to about 12 inches and have a prominent prong on one of the two branches.

I took this picture of a herd just above the ranch, I had to zoom way in so you could see them so the quality is not all that great, but you can see their prominent white rumps (click on the image to see a larger version).

Pronghorn antelope with their prominent white rumps

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting little rats. I just looked them up online and one web site said they are near extinction! Ha, I don't think so.

Erin said...

antelope is also one of my favorite bands :) is it unusual to see so many antelope at the ranch this time of year? if so, i wonder why there are so many of them...

Renee said...

There are usually antelope around this time of year, but their numbers usually aren't so great. Glynn--Dan's brother who lives at the ranch full time--is even surprised by the number of antelope.

Margery said...

The beauty of the wild. Wonderful to know there are still areas where animals roam free. Love, Mom