Pronghorn's Status Across the West

[406life]

The 30th Pronghorn Workshop was this past week and highlighted some great research being done on the species. It also showed some very real concerns about their declining numbers. Virtually every state is reporting dropping numbers, some very quickly. The hardest hit areas are the core states and ranges. Disease and environment are definitely having an impact but in many places they simply don't know why the numbers are declining. Road avoidance studies are showing stark segregation of herds, which might be leading to loss of collective migration knowledge and genetic diversity. Another study shows that there may be susceptibility of pronghorn to contract CWD, sharing 6 of 6 of the alleles that make WT susceptible.





All this makes me very concerned about our current conservation of antelope. They can bounce back with a few good years, but they aren't showing that response, especially in Montana. Beyond the winter kill in WY 2022, there is significant pressure on a species that generally is last on priority sheets (heck, I wonder if sage grouse work is probably benefiting pronghorn more than pronghorn work).

The proceedings of the workshop will be published this summer, if anyone's interested in reading more. Maybe it's time for pronghorn enthusiasts to form the North American Pronghorn Foundation or something.

 

[Pro953]

I would love to know more about Pronghorn and how we can support the population of hopefully grow them in some places. Here in California we have a tiny population and I have always wondered what we could do to support and grow that herd, but like you said, they receive very little attention and even less funding compared the the more “prestigious” ungulates.

I assume the story likely follows very similar to Mule deer, the continued development of winter range to housing, solar etc… along with fencing and roads breaking up migration corridors. Like you said, the herds are segmented off and they lose genetic diversity, then a few hardship winters in a row knock the herd size down and that weakens the gendered diversity even more. Less of a rapid decline and more of a long term erosion.

At the end of the day it’s not shoulder seasons, doe harvest, method of take etc… it’s habitat, habitat, habitat.


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[rileybassman]

Interesting report - my field time hunting them the last 6-7 years (admittedly this is just hunting in a few units) supports this in that the observed #s hunting the last 2-3 years is less than it was 5-6 years back.

I'm curious to see this year's numbers - areas I have hunted just seem like their traditional ranges are overcrowded and housing/roads/fences seem to be impacting them. Opening day of antelope in some areas resembles a firing squad. A lot of that is just due to the nature of open country, smaller herds, block management "hot spots" etc. Have started seeing antelope in higher/more timbered country the last few years - which makes me wonder if resources are short and pressure is increasing which is pushing them into non-optimal habitat.

I love antelope and love antelope hunting and hope we start to see some better numbers soon.

 

[Jaden Bales]

The nice thing with pronghorn is, if we can keep their good habitat intact and without major barriers, usually they just need water to grow pretty quickly. That's in the short term that's being talked about here (the last 5 years).

I think that's why you're seeing such good numbers increase in Nevada, because they've had a couple of good moisture years. Whereas here in Wyoming, we had that gnarly drought knock em back in the eastern portion from '20-'22, then the winter hit em in the West. So the one-two punch got us down here. Looking like the east side is headed back for drought this summer, too. Which isn't gonna help.

Good invasive species mitigation (plant and animal), wildlife crossings, and removing crappy ol fences (especially woven wire) are real good ways to make a difference.

 

[406life]

Good invasive species mitigation (plant and animal), wildlife crossings, and removing crappy ol fences (especially woven wire) are real good ways to make a difference

There were a couple of reports on fences and invasive weeds. Woven wire are essentially a death knell to them and barbed strands have issues too. Both can be fixed with time, money, and cooperation. And there seems to be something of a silver bullet herbicide to treat cheat grass and effectively remove it. That would very huge for habitat remediation. I'm watching that one close.

 

[Hunterscamera]

The 30th Pronghorn Workshop was this past week and highlighted some great research being done on the species. It also showed some very real concerns about their declining numbers. Virtually every state is reporting dropping numbers, some very quickly. The hardest hit areas are the core states and ranges. Disease and environment are definitely having an impact but in many places they simply don't know why the numbers are declining. Road avoidance studies are showing stark segregation of herds, which might be leading to loss of collective migration knowledge and genetic diversity. Another study shows that there may be susceptibility of pronghorn to contract CWD, sharing 6 of 6 of the alleles that make WT susceptible.

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View attachment 729748

All this makes me very concerned about our current conservation of antelope. They can bounce back with a few good years, but they aren't showing that response, especially in Montana. Beyond the winter kill in WY 2022, there is significant pressure on a species that generally is last on priority sheets (heck, I wonder if sage grouse work is probably benefiting pronghorn more than pronghorn work).

The proceedings of the workshop will be published this summer, if anyone's interested in reading more. Maybe it's time for pronghorn enthusiasts to form the North American Pronghorn Foundation or something.

Do you know what resources to keep up to date with? Websites, or names of journals that the proceedings will be published with? Thanks

 

[David Gough]

The nice thing with pronghorn is, if we can keep their good habitat intact and without major barriers, usually they just need water to grow pretty quickly. That's in the short term that's being talked about here (the last 5 years).

I think that's why you're seeing such good numbers increase in Nevada, because they've had a couple of good moisture years. Whereas here in Wyoming, we had that gnarly drought knock em back in the eastern portion from '20-'22, then the winter hit em in the West. So the one-two punch got us down here. Looking like the east side is headed back for drought this summer, too. Which isn't gonna help.

Good invasive species mitigation (plant and animal), wildlife crossings, and removing crappy ol fences (especially woven wire) are real good ways to make a difference.

Feral horses and pronghorn go hand in hand in Nevada, yet the population grows while mule deer dwindle.

Part of me wonders how hunting drives the population too. We have limited HSTE hunts and manage most of our units for trophy potential. Even the units where there are lots of buck tags the trophy quality can still be high.

 

[Muledeerfanatic]

The numbers across Wyoming have dropped steadily for the last 15-20 years
It is a sad thing to see

 

[manitou1]

Over selling tags and issuing doe tags sure isn't helping either!

 

[180ls1]

Stark difference along the NV / UT line. I wonder what that is due to.

 

[Flazyj]

Over selling tags and issuing doe tags sure isn't helping either!

I don’t understand why they keep issuing so many do tags in a declining population.

 

[Jaden Bales]

I don’t understand why they keep issuing so many do tags in a declining population.

Many answers can be found here:

Job Completion Reports | Wyoming Game & Fish Department

Access links to Job Completion Reports below.

wgfd.wyo.gov

Oftentimes they aren’t giving out doe tags in places below objective. If they (like the type 7 tag by Lander) it’s because the herd is under objective but you still get a couple hundred goats parked underneath pivots. So you could say hay field herds are overpopulated. And I don’t blame those goats for not leaving to repopulate other parts of the unit. lol. They’re my favorite for the freezer!