The pronghorn (UK: , US: ) (Antilocapra americana) is a species of artiodactyl (even-toed, hoofed) mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. Though not an antelope, it is known colloquially in North America as the American antelope, prong buck, pronghorn antelope, and prairie antelope, because it closely resembles the antelopes of the Old World and fills a similar ecological niche due to parallel evolution. It is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae. During the Pleistocene epoch, about 11 other antilocaprid species existed in North America, many with long or spectacularly twisted horns. Three other genera (Capromeryx, Stockoceros and Tetrameryx) existed when humans entered North America, but are now extinct. The pronghorn's closest living relatives are the giraffe and okapi. The antilocaprids are part of the infraorder Pecora, making them distant relatives of deer, bovids, and moschids. The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the Americas, with running speeds up to 55 mph (88.5 km/h). It is the symbol of the American Society of Mammalogists.
Etymology The animal gets its name from its horn sheaths that branch and have a forward-pointing tine, unlike the horns of species from the ox family Bovidae.
European discovery Pronghorns were first seen and described by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, but the species was not formally recorded or scrutinized until the expedition in 1804–06 by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark. Following the discovery of a few subspecies of the sharp-tailed grouse, Lewis and Clark came across the pronghorn near the mouth of the Niobrara River, in present-day Nebraska. Clark was among the first Euro-Americans to publish the experience of killing a pronghorn, and described his experience as follows:
I walked on shore to find an old Vulcanoe [the Ionia Volcano?] ... in my walk I killed a Buck Goat of this Countrey, about the height of the Grown Deer, its body Shorter the horns which is not very hard and forks 2⁄3 up one prong Short the other round & Sharp arched, and is immediately above its Eyes the Color is a light gray with black behind its ears down the neck, and its face white round its neck, its Sides and its rump round its tail which is Short & white; Verry actively made, has only a pair of hoofs to each foot, his brains on the back of his head, his Nostrals large, his eyes like a Sheep he is more like the Antilope or Gazelle of Africa than any other Species of Goat. The pronghorn was first officially described by American ornithologist George Ord in 1815.
Description
Pronghorns have distinct white fur on their rumps, sides, bellies, breasts, and across their throats. Adult males are 4.3–4.9 ft (1.3–1.5 m) long from nose to tail, stand 2.7–3.4 ft (82–104 cm) high at the shoulder, and weigh 88–143 lb (40–65 kg). The females are the same height as males, but weigh 75–106 lb (34–48 kg). The feet have two hooves, with no dewclaws. Their body temperature is 100 °F (38 °C).
Head
They have very large eyes with a 320° field of vision. Their orbits (eye sockets) are prominent and set high on the skull. Their teeth are hypsodont and their dental formula is 0.0.3.33.1.3.3. Unlike deer, pronghorns possess a gallbladder. Each horn of the pronghorn is composed of a slender, laterally flattened blade of bone, which is thought to grow from the frontal bones of the skull, or from the subcutaneous tissues of the scalp, forming a permanent core. As in the Giraffidae, skin covers the bony cores, but in the pronghorn, it develops into a keratinous sheath, which is shed and regrown annually. Males have a horn sheath about 4.9–17 in (12+1⁄2–43+1⁄4 cm) (average 9.8 in or 25 cm) long with a prong. Females have smaller horns that range from 0.4–2.4 in (1–6 cm) (average 4.7 in or 12 cm) and sometimes barely visible; they are straight and very rarely pronged. Males are further differentiated from females in having a small patch of black hair at the angle of the mandible. Pronghorns have a distinct, musky odor. Males mark territory with a preorbital scent gland on the sides of the head.
Scent glands The preorbital gland's secretion contains the highly odoriferous compound, 2-ethyl-3-methylpyrazine, which is also the major volatile component found on the animal's back in the male's medial gland. Male and female animals have glands that are exposed when the white hair on the rump stands up. 2-Pyrrolidinone, the major compound in the rump gland, has an odor reminiscent of buttered popcorn to humans. The flared rump hair and odor alert adjacent animals of a possible danger. Pronghorns have well developed glands on each hoof. Like many ungulates, these interdigital (hoof) glands contain chemical compounds that are known to have antimicrobial activity against soil and mammalian pathogens.
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