I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I can’t imagine what it’s like living out in states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, where you see so much wildlife that you couldn’t even fathom seeing in my home state of South Carolina.
So, whenever I see videos like this pop up on my feed, I can’t help but be intrigued.
For those who aren’t too familiar, pronghorns are a species of artiodactyl mammals that are very similar to the antelope, but not in the same family. Often incorrectly called “antelope,” pronghorns are the fastest land mammals in North America, reaching top speeds of 61 mph when they’re in a full sprint. And not only are they freaky fast, they can see movement from miles and miles away. Combine insane speed and high-powered eye-sight, and it’s not hard to see why predators have a tough time with them.
In fact, the biggest threat to pronghorn populations is probably human intervention. And not just hunters, more so habitat loss, and the construction of roads and fences that keep them from migrating to more suitable land for grazing and breeding.
With that being said, this video gives the perfect idea of how fast these creatures can travel. In this wild video footage, you can see a pronghorn running at top speeds alongside a car driving down a road. The person driving the car also shows that they’re traveling at 40 mph, and the pronghorn is basically outrunning their car.
Check it out:
Massive Wyoming Pronghorn Herd Halts Traffic
This ain’t your everyday occurrence.
I get fired up when I see a singular deer or moose, but literally thousands of pronghorn at once?!
It is typical for different species to herd up, especially during winter months. Pronghorn are no different, they love a good herd throughout that time. Herds are known to get quite large, with upwards of a thousand individuals together.
If I was a betting man, I would put some money down on this being the larger end of any pronghorn herd.
The video starts with a few running across the road. Pretty cool to begin with. Then they just seem to keep on coming.
That’s when you notice that there is literally a lineup of Pronghorn waiting to cross the road. It looks like a crowd running to be the first inline for some show.
As the video pans over to the side of the road they’re coming from, you realize that there are far more than you ever would have anticipated. They just keep on coming. The pronghorn look like ants coming over the hill, there’s just so many it almost doesn’t seem like they could be an animal that big.
The front of the herd makes it to the fence line on the other side of the road and start jumping over. With this many pronghorn, at least one must mess up and get stuck on that fence… Nothing we haven’t seen before with fence-jumping animals.
The video pans more to that size and you can notice a beat down trail in the snow, they must have traveled there before. As it continues to pan you see even more on that side of the road. This is an insane amount of one species in one spot, for anywhere. It’s almost unbelievable, a person might think they were farmed there is so many together.
The trail of pronghorn seems to go on for miles… And they just keep coming over that hill.
According to the woman filming, this massive herd was spotted outside of Cody, Wyoming, on New Year’s Day of this year.
“Driving home from Cody, Wyoming with my boyfriend, came across this great migration on News Year’s Day, January 1, 2022.
The exact location is State HWY 230 south of Encampment, WY near the Colorado border. At least 20,000 antelope crossing the state highway.”
Just incredible.
Yellowstone Bison Herd Help Baby Pronghorn
Among the 3,468 square miles of Yellowstone National Park, it’s hard to even imagine everything that goes on amongst the wildlife out there.
However, lucky for us, we’re blessed with a number of videos taken by either the park or tourists, giving us all a glimpse of the natural beauty, and often times, not so pretty, aspects of the park.
In the latest edition of wild Yellowstone videos, a tourist shot a video of a black wolf chasing a baby pronghorn in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone, from their car.
The caption of the video reads:
“A black wolf chases a baby pronghorn in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park. The mother pronghorn helps protect the baby by trying to distract and make the wolf chase her instead. Even the bison try to help the baby pronghorn by blocking the wolf’s path.
The baby pronghorn was able to escape the wolf by using its amazing speed and endurance. Handheld video was taken from inside our car. We were towing our trailer on our way to our campsite for the evening and were not prepared for this incredible sight!”
The mother pronghorn, which can quite easily outrun the lone wolf, tries to distract the savage killer from its pursuit of her baby. Pronghorn are the fastest North American land mammal, with a top speed of about 55 miles per hour.
However, they can sustain speeds of about 30 miles per hour for over 20 miles.
Needless to say, it’s no surprise why mom was trying to get the focus on her. Of course, the wolf is smarter than that…
But then, the bison herd appears to get involved, seemingly trying to cut off the wolf from its attack.
They don’t offer much help, but the young pronghorn seems to actually be doing fine on its own.
And while it’s rare to see a wolf hunt on its own like this, as they typically hunt in packs, we don’t know the outcome of this hunt. Did the little fella make it? Did more wolves join the hunt? Did the wolf get stomped by a bison?
Who knows… what we do know, Yellowstone National Park is always down for something cool.
