The North American antelope or pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). 100 pounds of steely muscle made to run like the wind and gallop long distances. Over 40 miles per hour in fact. The pronghorn is a pale tan color with a white rump patch, white lower sides, two broad white bands across its throat, and slightly curved horns with a single prong that projects forward.
The pronghorn is the fastest animal in North America, and only the North American cheetah can outrun it, but that critter no longer exists. The cheetah went extinct from this side of the world over 10,000 years ago. Current research indicates it wasn't a cheetah at all, but a relative of the puma or mountain lion.
The pronghorn evolved to out run the cheetah, just like the elk evolved with its great size to fight off wolves and survive the deep snows of winter.
And what do wolves, coyotes and pronghorns have in common? A great deal it now seems.
A recent report in the journal Ecology highlighted a study completed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on the interrelationship between coyotes, wolves and pronghorns. The study completed by the WCS, indicates that the removal of wolves from a given area, will reduce the number of pronghorns. It turns out the wolf is the pronghorns best friend.
The WCS study results show that wolf packs reduce the numbers of coyotes and coyotes prey heavily on pronghorn fawns. Wolves will prey on the fawns as well, but tend to concentrate their hunting on larger animals like elk. The presence of wolves in an ecosystem means fewer coyotes and fewer coyotes means higher survival rates of pronghorn fawns.
This research was conducted in Teton National Park, and split between two areas; one study area that has a very low wolf population and another area that has abundant wolf packs. Over a 3 year period 100 antelope fawns were radio collared and the resulting data shows that the area with a low wolf population had only a 10% survival rate of fawns, and the area with a high wolf population had a 34% survival rate of fawns.
Pronghorns have increased their population by 50%, since the reintroduction of the gray wolf in 1995, in Teton National Park. This population of pronghorns makes a 200 mile one way migration every year, to escape the deep snows of this region, in a migration corridor called the Path of the Pronghorns. The pronghorns drift to the south east towards Pinedale, Wyoming, to find forage at lower elevations. This migration corridor has been in use for at least the past 6,000 years. This corridor is threatened by road building and oil and gas development in Wyoming, on Bureau of Land Management jurisdictions and on private lands, although the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service recently signed an agreement to protect this lane, through their jurisdictions.
The positive effects of the gray wolf on our environment are many, and are not widely understood. The relationship between the wolf and its prey species is very complex and needs further research and study. The return of the gray wolf to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, is a marvel of nature, and will greatly benefit the ecosystems and animals of the Northern Rocky Mountains.
The State of Idaho has proposed wolf hunting regulations (currently in draft status) that would allow the killing of over 300 wolves in Idaho, which is nearly 50% of the Statewide population. This is a very short sighted proposal, which would destroy many wolf packs. That number is larger than the entire wolf population of Yellowstone Park in Wyoming (200 + animals).
The basic premise of hunting is that you harvest only the excess animals each year, which ensures a stable population, over the decades. The proposed State of Idaho wolf hunting plan would wipe out wolves over wide areas of Idaho. This is not hunting.
Support the Western Wolf Organization (http://westernwolves.org) in its efforts to negotiate a reasonable wolf management plan for Idaho.
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