Pronghorn

Description:

The pronghorn has a deer-like body. It weighs between 90 and 120 pounds and stands about 31/2 feet tall from shoulder to feet. It has a tan to reddish brown body. Its cheeks, belly, rump, chest and inner legs are white. Males have a broad black mask that runs from their eyes down their snout to their nose, black neck patches and pronged black horns that are 12-20 inches long. The male's horns are lyre-shaped and curve in towards each other. The female does not have the black markings and her horns are usually straight, short spikes between 3-4 inches long. The pronghorn has horns, not antlers. Its horns are made of two parts: a bony core that is covered by a sheath made of a stiff hair-like material. It is the only animal that has branched horns and it it the only animal that sheds its horns each year! The outer sheath falls of every year in the fall and then grows back in the summer!

Habitat:

Grassland

Notes:

Usually we see several herds of pronghorns when we drive through this area. This year, all we saw was this one lone pronghorn.