For 30,000 years pronghorns have migrated in the fall and winter as they sought out the best places to find nutritious food, give birth, raise their fawns and survive brutal cold, snow, drought and predators.
This wisdom has allowed the 120-pound animals, also known as antelope, to survive while other animals like the dire wolf and giant sloths went extinct about 11,000 years ago.
A recently published study gives greater insight into why and where a collection of GPS-collared pronghorns traveled as they moved between Canada and Montana. Such data will be essential if humans want to help pronghorns survive for another 30,000 years.
For 30,000 years pronghorns have migrated in the fall and winter as they sought out the best places to find nutritious food, give birth, raise their fawns and survive brutal
Despite having to reduce the size of their volunteer crew from 16 to 10, as well as implement restrictive COVID-19 protocols, the Alberta Fish and Game Association and Alberta Conservation Association have completed all four of their planned pronghorn fencing projects this year.
The two associations began their joint fencing program 12 years ago as a way to keep migrating antelope in the southeast of the province from getting injured by barbed wire. Working primarily on private land, volunteers remove the bottom strand of barbed wire from existing fences and replace it with smooth wire. They also reattach the remaining original wires so they’re spaced apart better.