Pronghorn - Antilocapra Americana - NatureWorks

Home » What Does A Pronghorn Eat » Pronghorn - Antilocapra Americana - NatureWorks

Maybe your like

Characteristics
PronghornThe pronghorn is a unique North American mammal. Its Latin name, Antilocapra americana, means "American goat-antelope," but it is not a member of the goat or the antelope family and it is not related to the antelopes found in Africa. The pronghorn is the only surviving member of the Antilocapridae family and it has been in North America for over a million years! PronghornThe 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. PronghornThe 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!
Range

mapThe pronghorn can be found in southeastern Oregon; southern Idaho; southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada; Montana; and western North Dakota south to Arizona and western Texas.

Habitat

PronghornThe pronghorn lives in grasslands, brushlands and deserts. The pronghorn lives in herds that change in size depending on the season. In the summer, females and their young will gather in bands of less than a dozen individuals. Young males less than two years old form bachelor herds. Breeding males establish individual territories. In the winter, the herd will include males and females and can include hundreds of pronghorns. The pronghorn migrates from a summer feeding ground to a winter feeding ground.

Diet
PronghornIn the summer, the pronghorn grazes on grasses, forbs and cactus. In the winter, the pronghorn eats sagebrush and other available plants.

Tag » What Does A Pronghorn Eat