"If they survived the summer and reached adulthood, they would become some of the fastest land animals on Earth. Adult pronghorn, a bit smaller than deer, can run seven miles in just 10 minutes, achieving short bursts of nearly 60 mph, much faster than horses or wolves. With their long thin legs and oversized hearts and lungs, they are built to cover ground in the wide-open sagebrush basins of Wyoming, my home state."
"Drought hits more often; winters are less snowy. Spring melt comes earlier, and streams run lower in late summer. We have fewer frost days, hotter summers, fiercer storms. The shifting temperatures and unpredictable precipitation mean that conifer forests are drying out, burning and dying, while rangelands are succumbing to invasive fire-adapted grasses."
Pronghorn fawns in Wyoming exemplify species adapted to open sagebrush basins with extreme speed and specialized physiology. Adults can sustain high speeds, possessing long legs and large hearts and lungs. Contemporary threats include rural housing, energy development, fences, highways, and habitat fragmentation. Climate change has already warmed the West, causing more frequent drought, less snowy winters, earlier spring melt, lower late-summer streams, fewer frost days, hotter summers, and fiercer storms. These changes increase wildfire risk and invasive grasses, altering conifer forests and rangelands and directly affecting pronghorn survival and movement.
Read at High Country News
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