One of my favorite creatures of the plains. They usually aren’t particularly cooperative, preferring to keep their distance from humans (probably wisely so). They have extraordinary eyesight allowing them to spot you long before you see them and of course they are lightning fast. Thankfully, this handsome fellow was less intimidated by me than most and gave me a nice pose before running off.
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.
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