Aug
07
Pronghorn
By
One of three pronghorns that greeted my Southwest Wings group in the uncharacteristically lush Sonoita grasslands Wednesday afternoon. If the reintroduction of black-tailed prairie-dogs “takes” here, these grasslands will have a nearly intact mammalian fauna once again–lacking only the Mexican wolf and grizzly bear.
2 Comments
August 7th, 2010 at 11:55 am
is the Pronghorn native there Rick?
August 7th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
yes, “Chihuahuan” pronghorn was common on the grasslands until the 20th century, when it was nearly or entirely extirpated from AZ. The animals here now were introduced from Texas in the 1970s.
Northern Arizona still has “American” pronghorn, and “Sonoran” pronghorn–the rarest subspecies–has been reintroduced to the desert in southwest Arizona.
While it’s unsurprising to see hundreds in a day in Utah, Wyoming, and western Nebraska, it’s still a rare treat here in southeast Arizona.