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Pronghorn Migration

Greetings everyone, on this beautiful February morning from the Nature Center. 
We seem to be entering the heart of winter in Jackson, with a fresh covering of snow from intermittent flurries last week.  Regardless of the season, we are always capable of seeing magnificent wildlife in and around our community.  This is certainly one of many reasons all of us choose to live in Jackson Hole.  And the longer we live here, the more we come to understand and appreciate the intricate life histories of each animal we see, from the bald eagles that perch in the cottonwoods along Cody Creek, to the moose that frequent Gros Ventre Junction or the elk on the refuge.  My point is that all of us at 3 Creek Ranch realize that there is more to simply watching animals from a roadside of vantage point, and that knowing interesting aspects of an animals life history makes our observations ever more meaningful and exciting.  While a casual wildlife observation may at first appear benign, such as a group of Pronghorn Antelope grazing peacefully in the sage brush flats, or a bald eagle perched high in a tree overhanging the bank of the Snake River, what we really are seeing is the living proof that these animals are successfully overcoming daily life struggles that we as humans can barely comprehend.  A wildlife ecologist will tell us these struggles fit into categories such as predator-prey, competition for food, space and mates, habitat selection, and so forth. The salient point is that wild animals are living a truly wild existence throughout our valley…in the river bottom, sage flat, foothill and forested landscapes we hike, drive or ski through.  And their existence is certainly not always easy. These thoughts entered my mind last week as I was driving north from town on my way to the airport.  I made an observation that helped me realize the importance of what I will call ‘the awareness behind the seeing’. This is a story about our remarkable Pronghorn Antelope, and the story may not have the peaceful, benign happy ending we always hope for when we watch nature in action…
As I drove north past the elk refuge, crested the fish hatchery hill and just north of Gros Ventre junction, I could see a group of animals on the right side of the road in the sagebrush flats.  Must be a group of elk I mumbled to myself…but as I drove closer, I realized this was a group of about 30 Pronghorn Antelope.  I pulled off the side of the road immediately, rolled down my window, pulled out my binoculars and camera.  Several were lying down, other standing, a few grazing but alert.  Pronghorn Antelope in Jackson…no big deal, right?  We see them all the time on Antelope Flats in the summer…I must admit that as I pulled off the road my heart started racing and a mild form of panic set in.  I thought to myself, “what in the world are these antelope doing here in winter…these animals are never going to survive a winter in Jackson.”  A terrible thought, but it only gets worse.  A moment later tow cars joined me, three people got out and asked what I was looking at. We all got out, started a very pleasant conversation about Pronghorn Antelope, two more cars and several more people.  The guests were excited to see the pronghorn, I answered as many questions as I could, and hopefully they learned a few things about wildlife in Jackson.  However, a harsh ‘teachable moment’ was about to befall our happy group. Our peaceful-looking scenario was about to change as I slowly explained that this Pronghorn antelope herd is migratory, is not capable of finding food in deep snow, and there is a very high likelihood that all of these animals will perish before the end of winter.  Pronghorn are not designed to move through deep snow, so they must leave our valley in late fall to climb over the Gros Ventre mountains.  This year, with so little snow on the valley floor, the animals stayed.  But snow was accumulating in the higher elevations.  Greater snow depths in the valley signal the Pronghorn to go, but this year they will certainly get stuck as they move higher.  They are indeed trapped.  This drought-like winter may very well prove to cause a terrible loss to an already dwindling population of Pronghorn. I went on to explain that at the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the pronghorn that summer in Jackson Hole undertake remarkable annual migrations to and from wintering areas in Wyoming's Green River basin. Documented round trip migration distances from 300-560 km make this the longest known terrestrial animal migration in the 48 contiguous states. The "path of the pronghorn," as narrow as a football field in places, represents a critical artery to the life blood of a small but persistent population of pronghorn that resides in Grand Teton National Park, the National Elk Refuge, Bridger-Teton and Shoshone National Forests, and several Bureau of Land Management and private parcels in Teton and Sublette Counties. In northwest Wyoming, this population completes an impressive landscape of free-ranging native Rocky Mountain mammals that draw tourists from around the world and support a robust regional economy. The significance and intrinsic value of the migration have been recognized internationally in scientific, conservation, and popular media circles. And as long-distance animal migrations continue to dwindle at an alarming pace around the globe, the need to conserve the Jackson Hole pronghorn migration and protect its path through tangible, proactive measures becomes even more paramount. Pronghorn are a uniquely North American ungulate. Evolving alongside the long-extinct North American cheetah, which caught prey in a short dash, forced the pronghorn to become both a sprinter and an endurance runner. Whether escaping from danger or making long-distance migrations to find food, movement comes easily for pronghorn and is the species’ primary survival strategy. The migration path is ever more complicated because Pronghorn don’t jump, so are unable to jump fences. Imagine for a moment how many miles of fence must be strewn across the landscape between Jackson, Pinedale and Green River.  As this story shows, I bet there is always a little more going on in the natural world than meets the eye.  I hope we never forget that Jackson Hole still offers these unique opportunities to observe and learn about the natural world on its terms, not ours.  My ultimate hope is that my group of acquaintances will forever more look at a group of Pronghorn antelope with a renewed sense of understanding and excitement.
Please be sure to stop by or call the nature center when you are in Jackson, I’d very much enjoy sharing the winter season with you and family.
All my best,
Roger