I had to go to Cheyenne for work this week and had hoped to see some of these speed demons. I did indeed, dozens in fact on the way up but at that time I couldn’t stop. On the way back, I was only able to find a half dozen hanging out in Weld County just inside the Colorado border. As is typical, they didn’t want to hang around and be observed so I only got a few, fleeting captures.
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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