Pronghorn Buck, Yellowstone National Park
I photographed this pronghorn buck last June. Just ahead of him and out of the photo was a rambunctious fawn prancing around.
Tag: pronghorn antelope
Pronghorn Doe and Fawn, Yellowstone National Park
It’s that time. If you like to photograph wildlife you should be in Yellowstone or on your way. Bison calves are running all over the place. Elk, pronghorn and bighorn sheep are giving birth or will be soon. The bears are also out and about, some with cubs. It is the time to see and photograph baby animals.
This pronghorn fawn was born last May. The doe kept it and its sibling between the Roosevelt Arch and the north entrance station for the first week after birth. That’s when I left the park. The area is bounded by three roads and a high steel fence. It was crowded and noisy and wouldn’t seem to be a place for a wild animal to want to have babies. It’s also about the last place around Yellowstone that I would want to be stationed for a week hoping to photograph some predators. I don’t know if it was just happenstance or that mother pronghorn knew this was a good place to have her babies while they got stronger and were able to run fast enough to escape from a predator.
Pronghorn Doe and Fawn, Yellowstone National Park
This pronghorn mom and her two babies made a lot of visitors happy by staying between the Roosevelt Arch and the entrance station in late May. I spent a lot of time observing her and her two fawns.
During the time I observed her, she kept the fawns well-separated except on one occasion. I wonder if this is to minimize a predator getting them both. She would visit each one every couple of hours and let them feed for a few minutes and then they would lie down again in a new spot until she returned. They usually stayed perfectly still, but I saw one of them move once. Movement like that can get a young ungulate killed I would think. Each morning I would check to see if they were both there. They were still there when I left the Park on June 1.
I wondered if the mother made a good choice in keeping them where she did. I think so. It’s a rectangular area bordered by roads on all four sides and by buildings on two sides. There is a lot of human activity around there all day. Maybe not as safe at night, but “safe” is a relative term in the pronghorn world.
