Chasing the Rut: Pronghorn

Pronghorn

Like the bison, we have to get one thing straight here before we can talk about these animals: they are not antelope. They are pronghorn.

If you’re from the West, this may be a tough pill to swallow given that EVERYONE calls them antelope, or pronghorn antelope at best.

But trust me when I say, they are completely unrelated.

Bison, which I talked about in my last article here, are not unique to North America. There are European bison as well, and those in North America migrated here around 25,000 years ago from Eurasia. Pronghorn, on the other hand, are a true North American original.

In fact, there’s actually no other species of animal on the planet quite like the pronghorn. Not only do they own their own genus, they’re also the only living member of their family as well – Antelocapridae.

From the family name Antelocapredae, we can deduce much about how confused Europeans have always been since they first met the pronghorn. In the early years, these animals were called antelope because it was the only thing Europeans had encountered that these animals could be compared to – even though the closest living relative on the planet is the giraffe. But Lewis and Clark got it right when they noted that these animals appeared more goat like than anything else. And so, we end up with Antelocapredae, which translates quite literally to “antelope-goat.” Or, as I like to call them, the “goatalope.”

So many of the species in the west are misnamed like this. A pronghorn is more closely related to a goat than an antelope. Meanwhile, a mountain goat is more closely related to an antelope than they are a goat. But I digress.

There used to be other species in Antelocapredae family of animals, but today those are all extinct. The rest of this family tree was destroyed during Pleistocene extinctions at the end of the last ice age - that little blip in history when everything from sabretooth cats to mastodons were snuffed out.

I’ve written about this time period before. The North American landscape was filled to the brim with so many super predators and megafauna that it would make Africa of today seem like a petting zoo. In fact, many of the big species we travel to Africa to photograph originally evolved in North America such as lions, cheetahs, rhinoceros, and zebra. And they did so along side of the little pronghorn.

When the Bering land bridge was present, and we do know this happens periodically throughout the interglacial periods, animals moved west into Eurasia just as others moved east into the Americas. Bighorn sheep, gray wolves, grizzly bears, and moose are all such species – having evolved in Eurasia and then spread to North America.

But pronghorn stayed where they were. And somehow, they survived the catastrophic events that killed off so many species from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Black Forest of Germany.

It saddens me as a student of life and lover of biodiversity to see how most wildlife photographers turn their nose up at the little pronghorn. People want bison, they want moose, they want bears. Pronghorn? “You mean the antelope,” they ask? “No gracias.”

For me, however, these are truly one of the most unique species in all of North America.

For starters, they are the second fastest mammal on the planet. The title of fastest mammal goes to the cheetah of course, which can reach speeds up to 70 miles per hour (112 Km per hour). But they do so only in short bursts before slowing down, sustaining this speed for only 4 – 5 seconds. Pronghorns can reach 65mph, but can maintain top speed for several miles. And ironically, these animals developed this superpower in response to the cheetah – the American cheetah that is, which is now extinct.

Pronghorns have horns, not antlers. But everything about their horns defies everything we know about horns and antlers. Animals with horns have a bony spike sticking off their head that is covered in a keratin sheath – dead cells just like your hair and fingernails. Horns are never shed. Though they may grow larger with time, an animal carries their horns for life. Antlers, on the other hand, are living cells, true bone, and are grown and shed annually. Horns are single spikes. Antlers branch. But nobody told the pronghorn about any of this.

Pronghorns do have horns, but they shed the keratin sheaths like a moose sheds his antlers. These horns are also not single spikes – like every other horn on the planet. Instead, they branch like an antler which is where they get their name - from the pronged horn. It’s almost as if they were an intermediary species. A proverbial missing link between horns and antlers.

I could go on, but I won’t. I’ll stop here so I don’t bore you to death. Just let it suffice to say that this one unique little species.

The pronghorn rut picks up towards the tail end of the bison rut – which is somewhat fitting given that the two species have historically always lived side by side, great herds of both woven together on the open prairies. Late August through September is prime time to photograph these boys.

The pronghorn is unique (again) in that the women set up and stage races between the males as part of their decision making process of who to mate with. The poet Robinson Jeffers was only slightly mistaken when he wrote, “what but the wolf’s tooth whittled so fine / the fleet limbs of the antelope?” The adaptive evolution of the pronghorn may have been driven by the need to stay one step ahead of the American cheetah, but the ladies continue to promote speed now that such predators are nothing more than distant genetic memories.

Like most species, adaptation is a mix of both natural and sexual selection.

I do find it interesting, however, that both the pronghorn and bison have this strategy of forcing males to compete with each other. Last week I wrote about how bison cows will run through the heard in order to grab all the other big bulls attention, thus forcing her would be suitor to fight his way out of the proverbial “bull in the ring.” Although there is a difference between the strategy of the pronghorn and the bison, the outcome is similar for these two species who share such similar habitats and lifestyles and space.

When it comes to photographing pronghorns, consider setting up your compositions in such away as to tell this story of speed. These animals are the second fastest mammals on the planet after all. This is a big part of their story.

I like to refer to this as capturing the “essence” of a subject. That is to say, whatever makes a species’ story unique in a world full of stories, that’s what I want to emphasize in my compositions whenever possible. I tend to keep a running list of adjectives or short phrases one might use to describe a particular species or a particular place. Then, when behind my lens, I attempt to create photographs that evoke at least one of those adjectives.

With pronghorn, the first technique that always leaps to mind is to utilize motion blur in the photograph to suggest speed. Panning blurs are challenging but there is probably no better way to emphasize motion and speed. Shutter speeds here are somewhat dependent upon the actual speed of the pronghorns, but you will find that 1/60th - 1/30th of a second at f/8 will get you where you want to be in the greatest number of situations. The key is to keep perfect pace with the head of the animal, continuing to follow through with the swing of your lens while you trip the shutter. You want the head sharp, while the rest of the scene is streaked like it was created with the stroke of an artist’s brush.

Alternatively, you can also emphasize speed and motion by composing your photographs with the pronghorn running out of the frame. You probably know that it’s best practice to place a subject on the opposite side of the composition from the direction they are looking. This creates both harmony and balance. But if we do the opposite, if we place the subject facing out of the composition, this creates tension. And when that subject is running, the tension and discordance works in our favor and suggests the subject is moving very fast.

Another strategy I like to employ when photographing pronghorns has nothing to do with speed, but it does often result in unique behavior. In places where pronghorns are acclimated to humans, they have learned what is and what is not normal behavior of us. And laying down in the short grass prairie is NOT normal for humans.

Not entirely sure of what to make of this behavior, bucks (males) will often approach and stomp their feet. Most ungulates will do this actually. However, I don’t recommend drawing the curiosity of a 1500lb bull elk drunk on testosterone because he will likely try to let the air out of you with his antlers.

Pronghorn, like whitetail and mule deer, however, do not act aggressively in this situation. Instead, they will turn broad side, raise their front leg and stomp hard. The idea, theoretically, is that these animals don’t know what to think of you and so they are trying and elicit a response from you. Are you dead? Are you a predator? Crazy?

I learned this by accident. I like to photograph most animals from a very low position. And over time I noticed that certain species would react in certain ways to this. Bison, often just come marching over to me. Elk get aggressive. And pronghorn stomp their feet.

The photograph that accompanies this article is one such image that was created this way. I simply laid down behind my 600mm and the buck came over to inspect me.

As for places to photograph these animals during the rut, I could fill several pages with sites and descriptions. But, one of the issues of photographing pronghorn, much like working with elk or deer, is that these are a hunted species - in most places. This means that just because one area holds tremendous numbers of pronghorn, it doesn’t necessarily work well for photography.

Pinedale, Wyoming, is a good example of this. For the last 7,000 years, pronghorn from the southside of Yellowstone and all of Grand Tetons National Park have undergone a major migration south each fall after the rut to Pinedale and the Red Desert. This migration is so important that it was the very first protected wildlife corridor in the United States, and is one of the longest land migrations on Earth. The event rivals the migrations around the Serengeti and Masai Mara. However, pronghorn are readily hunted in the Pinedale area thus making this herd, outside of Yellowstone and the Tetons, extremely difficult to photograph.

Locations . . .

Yellowstone National Park

As much as I try to steer clear of the park during this time of the year, it is undeniable that it happens to be one of the premier pronghorn photography hotspots. Though the Lamar valley can be good at times, I prefer the open flats of the Old Yellowstone Trail that runs along the west side of the Yellowstone River near Gardiner, Montana. This is a small but little-known section of the park. However, it is not uncommon to find hundreds of pronghorn in this area come time for the rut.

Another area in the park that is good for pronghorn is the Old Gardiner Road. This one has long been hidden behind the dormitory housing at Mammoth Hot Springs. It’s the original road from Mammoth to Gardiner, and the park used to close this road down in a heartbeat if there was any threat of even a small amount of rain or snow. At the time of you reading this, however, all of that is changing. Due to the historic flooding that occurred this year (2022) in Yellowstone, the main road from Gardiner to Mammoth was destroyed and the canyon it traversed altered to such a degree that the park service decided there was no way to rebuild. So, instead, they began work on improving the Old Gardiner Rd to turn it into the main thoroughfare for traffic coming into the park. Now, the main entrance to Yellowstone through the Roosevelt Arch, up to Mammoth, is accessible to all.

This is still a fantastic place to find pronghorn. It’s just that now it’s no longer a remote and unknown dirt road where you would only see 5 - 10 vehicles in an entire day.

Custer State Park

Custer is a massive state park in South Dakota that backs right up against Wind Cave National Park. In fact, if you travel down the right dirt roads, you can slip into Wind Cave through the back door which provides some truly spectacular scenery along the way.

In some ways, I’m surprised Custer was not annexed by Wind Cave. The wildlife photography here is shockingly good, and it’s a place that very few photographers visit. Pronghorn, whitetail deer, mule deer, bison, coyote, prairie dogs, you name it. This place has it all.

But when it comes to the pronghorn rut, this is one location that I had to really think long and hard about whether or not I even wanted to tell people about. Yellowstone is great for the pronghorn rut. But, Custer is even better!

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