Old life returns to the desert
More than a century after railroads, ranchers and hunters vanquished their ancestors, pronghorn antelope are returning to this unforgiving expanse of desert along the California-Nevada border.
A photo of a lone male and a harem of five does shared on Death Valley’s Facebook page in late April was only the latest indication that the American pronghorn, North America’s land speed champion, may be extending its migratory range into the Mojave Desert once again from cooler seas of sage nearly 60 kilometres to the north and east.
“It’s not all gloom and doom, woohoo!” the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association announced to wildlife advocates nationwide. “If nothing else, enjoy the feel-good photo and I hope you’re doing well.”
The pronghorn’s reappearance here is a bit of a mystery, as most animal species are making tracks for higher and cooler elevations as the climate warms. Some say the interloping antelope could find themselves in dire straits once summer heat blankets the park.
Along with the recent photo, park officials noted: “Pronghorn may be some of the newest residents to our park! While on patrol, rangers have recently spotted a herd of these quick-footed animals and at least one lone male exploring the park, likely the result of a migration that has been years in the making.
“While pronghorn have been witnessed in the park on occasion for the past two years,” they added, “this increase in their presence suggests these graceful creatures may become long-term residents of the valley.”
Recently, a group of biologists spent the morning photographing a doe that was guarding a newly born fawn in a patch of desert scrub just east of the park’s northern boundary near the town of Beatty, Nev.
Additional analysis is needed to determine whether the deer-like animals with forward jutting black horns are establishing residency in the usually desolate 3.3 million-acre park.
In the meantime, their spring season ventures into the Mojave in recent years open the door to some obvious questions.
Exactly where are they coming from? Are they rediscovering ancient migratory routes in arid lands punctuated by scattered mountains and plateaus or creating new pathways into areas where drought and rising temperatures are upsetting the delicate balance between life and death for such species as desert tortoises and Joshua trees?
In any case, “They’re not going to hang around in the desert much longer. The Mojave is a tough place for pronghorn in summer,” said Kathleen Longshore, a research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Pat Cummings, a game biologist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, agrees. “If those animals don’t have a source of standing water, they’re going to be in a pickle,” he said. “In Death Valley, the party is over in June.”