Cholame Pronghorn II

[Freedivr2]

Yesterday morning I took a pic of a lope that was bedded 40 yards off of Hwy 46, Parkfield exit. Stopped the truck to take a pic and she got up and started angling TOWARD both me and the road! She finally stopped up at about 20 yards when I got out of the truck to snap pictures.

This doe is kinda unique in that she's sporting horns approx. 2" long (use a magnifying glass)...I thought it was maybe a yearling buck, definitely wasn't sure, so I asked a friend of mine (in Colorado) about it. He told me that these are called "uncommon does"; that the horns don't get much bigger (and that the name infers they're uncommon but apparently they're not so uncommon). Anyway, frst time I'd ever seen a pronghorn doe sporting a rack, thought I'd pass it on to you guys.

 

[Freedivr2]

Here's another pic of that lope, turning it's head to show me it didn't have a black cheekpatch (that is predominant on bucks) I guess.........

 

[COHunter]

Great pictures. That sure is some wide open country in the background.

 

[Canus latrans]

When I had a doe tag in Wyoming I spent a couple of days waiting for a doe with small horns. The rancher told me that usually the doe with horns is a mature animal and may even have passed the age for breeding. He claimed that the horned female antelope usually have teeth for a 6+ year old animal.

On another hunt in Nevada the lead antelope in a bunch, which is almost always a mature doe, usually had those small horns. I was able to watch several groups come to water and none of the herd would pass that lead doe.

If this antelope did not have a little one with it, perhaps she is barren.

 

[Freedivr2]

That might explain a couple of things that we had noticed about this particular critter. One, we thought she looked like an older animal, but had the small horns, so we thought she was a big yearling buck that was just kinda tired or something. She was all alone at the time, no young-un around, but besides that, she was walking a little slow, just kinda seemed to not be in the best condition. She just was old enough to know that we offered no danger and she could give a hoot about us being there, maybe.

Canus, Thanks for your post, helps clear a couple of questions up we had about this lope.

 

[YH88]

Nice Pictures