Pronghorn - Conservation and Management
Pronghorn
Pronghorn are the fastest land mammal in North America, capable of sustaining speeds of over 50 mph.
The pronghorn is unique amongst Colorado’s large mammals. It is the lone surviving member of the family Antilocapridae, a once diverse group of species only found in North America (O’Gara and Yoakum 2004). All other members of the family went extinct by the end of the Pleistocene Era.
Pronghorn buck
Pronghorn Doe
Bucks and Does
Males and some females grow a black “horn” sheath which is made of keratin and forms over a bony core. Pronghorn shed their sheaths annually, while the bony core remains throughout the animal’s life. Pronghorn females, or does, have a gestation period of approximately nine months, almost always giving birth to twins, which together weigh around 20% of their mother’s body weight. The nine-month gestation of a pronghorn doe, weighing about 90-100 lb, rivals that of cow elk, a 400-600 lb animal.
Herd Management Plans
Pronghorn Herd Management
The purpose of a Herd Management plan (HMP) is to integrate the plans and intentions of Colorado Parks and Wildlife with the concerns and ideas of land management agencies and interested public to determine how a big game herd in a Data Analysis Unit (DAU) should be managed.
Big game populations are managed to achieve population and sex ratio objectives established for Data Analysis Units. A DAU is the geographic area that represents the year-around range of a big game herd and includes all of the seasonal ranges of a specific herd. Each DAU usually is composed of several Game Management Units (GMUs), but in some cases only one GMU makes up a DAU.
Draft Herd Management Plans
There are currently no draft plans open for public comment. When comment periods are available, they are open for 30 days.
About the Draft Plan Process
Traditionally, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff have presented one herd management plan at a time for approval to the Parks and Wildlife Commission. In order to address the large numbers of HMPS that need to be updated, staff have taken a new approach to develop a regional roll-up of all HMPs in a CPW region for a single big game species to update or establish new population and sex ration objectives. The regional plans also describe the significant management issue for herds within each Region, what public input was used to develop proposed objectives, and the individual HMPs for each herd.
Finalized Herd Management Plans
- Northeast Pronghorn - includes HMPs for PH1, PH2, PH4, PH30, PH33, PH35 and PH36
- Southeast Pronghorn -Includes HMPs for PH05, PH06, PH07, PH08, PH12, PH13, PH18, PH19, PH20, PH31 and PH39
- PH14 - Northern San Luis Valley
- PH16 - Southern San Luis Valley
- PH37 - Middle Park
- A3 - North Park
- A23 - Gunnison Basin
About Preparing an HMP
In preparing an HMP, agency personnel attempt to balance the biological capabilities of the herd and its habitat with the public's demand for wildlife recreational opportunities.
The primary decisions needed for each HMP plan are how many animals should exist in the DAU and what is the desired sex ratio for the population of big game animals (e.g., the number of males per 100 females).
The selection of population and sex ratio objectives (which are set for a 10-year period of time) drive important decisions in the big game season setting process, namely:
- How many animals must be harvested to maintain or move toward the objectives
- What types of hunting seasons are required to achieve the harvest objective
Conservation Success Story
Pronghorn are a conservation success story. In the early 1800s, pronghorn were abundant and widely distributed throughout western North America, but were almost extirpated by 1900 due to unregulated exploitation for their hides and meat. However, starting in the early 1900s, successful conservation efforts, including transplants, regulation and enforcement of hunting laws, and the establishment of wildlife refuges, brought the species back from the brink of extinction. Pronghorn now occur in grasslands and shrublands throughout southcentral Canada, the Great Basin, Intermountain West, and Great Plains in the United States, and parts of northwestern Mexico (O’Gara and Yoakum 2004; Yoakum et al. 2014). In Colorado, pronghorn inhabit most of their historic range and are widely distributed throughout the eastern plains (Armstrong et al. 2010). They are also found in several mountain valleys and sagebrush rangelands in northwestern Colorado.
Challenges
In 2022, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) estimated the total statewide population to be 73,000 pronghorn, with over 42% (31,000 pronghorn) occurring in southeastern Colorado. In 2022, CPW offered 22,000 limited pronghorn licenses statewide, of which 15,158 licenses were for game management units (GMU) in the Southeast Region. The pronghorn population in southeastern Colorado is currently robust. However, CPW faces several challenges for the future of pronghorn management in the region. Challenges include but are not limited to drought, management on private lands, energy and housing development, along with loss of connectivity across the landscape.