While traveling to the west on our September road trip, Gabi and I drove through the Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming. This is a unique region and we really enjoyed the road through this place. We saw lots of wildlife such as prairie dogs and deer, but the main attraction of this place was definitely the pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). We liked watching them from the car and we also stopped by a few times to take some photos of them.

Pronghorn is often called pronghorn antelope, however, it is not a true antelope, its closest living relatives are the giraffe and the okapi. Their range extends from southern Canada into the United States to northern Mexico. The largest population can be found in Wyoming.

They usually migrate throughout their range and eat a wide variety of plants. Pronghorns live in herds, so if you see one, there must be more around. We saw quite a few close to the road and were lucky to find fawns as well. They were probably born in May, so they were almost the size of their mother in September.

The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the US. While they are built for speed, they can’t jump, so they often can be seen going under fences. For this reason ranchers should use barbless bottom wires to help protecting these wonderful animals.

Watching the pronghorns from the car was really fun, they made our long drive a pleasure. Photographing them was quite challenging though. They didn’t mind the cars while they were speeding, but they became really skittish every time we stopped. Fortunately I was able to take some photos from the car’s window putting my camera on a beanbag. The gear I used: Canon 5Ds, Canon 500mm F/4 + 1.4x.