Animal Fun Facts: Meet the Pronghorn

By Gianna Ursone, Staff Writer

Hello Cornerstone Warriors! For this week’s animal fun fact, we have the Pronghorn or scientifically known as the Antilocapra americana! These animals are native to North America and can be found as far as southern Canada, through western and central United States, and northern Mexico. Knowing this information, let’s dive deeper into some smaller fun facts about them.  

• Pronghorns are the fastest land mammal in North America. They have enormous windpipes, hearts and lungs that help them sustain a high speed over long distances.  
• Surprisingly, both male and female pronghorns have horns. However, males (or bucks) are the ones with the more characteristic prongs (As shown in the image). They are the only animals that have branched, shedable horns.  
• When these animals are panicked, they will flare up their white hair on their rumps to warn other members of their herd about the possible danger.  
• Wyoming has the highest number of pronghorns in North America. They home about 320,000 of these fascinating animals.  
• Despite looking similar to an antelope, pronghorns prefer to crawl/duck under fences rather than jump over them.  

That’s all the fun facts for this animal! Hopefully, you’ve learned something new about pronghorns and get a better understanding of just how awesome they are.

Illustration by Gianna Ursone