Our second day in Yellowstone National Park last week saw us head to the Lamar Valley, our favorite area of the park for seeing wildlife. As always, it did not disappoint.
Among the creatures we were able to view and photograph was this handsome Pronghorn buck. He was initially lounging around, watching the tourists go by then got up and struck a nice pose for me.
Sometimes mistakenly called antelope, their closest relatives are actually giraffes and okapi. It is believed Pronghorn developed their extraordinary speed when the now extinct American Cheetah was a threat.
They are in fact the fastest land animal in the Western Hemisphere and second in the world only to the Cheetah. They can sprint at speeds up to 60mph and run for extraordinarily long distances at slower speeds. That speed and endurance continues to come in handy for escaping the threats of today – coyotes, wolves and of course man.
