Pronghorn Antelope
This is an old webpage carried forward to our new site. Please note that some of the information might be out of date and we probably have newer footage.
Pronghorn Antelope
The cheetah is usually given the title of the fastest land animal, but in reality, its the pronghorn antelope, at least if the race is longer than a few hundred meters. Interestingly, the blazing speed of the pronghorn–which is much, much faster than any of the North American predators–has been hypothesized to be due to the cheetahs that once inhabitat the North American plains. In most areas the most severe predator of the pronghorn is the coyote (excluding people). They are primarily a threat to newborn pronghorns and to animals weakened or in a vulnerable position (e.g., caught in deep snow with a crust on the surface).
Like many of North America’s game animals, the pronghorn was once close to extinction, but today they are found over much of their historic range and they are relatively common.
Filming Pronghorn Antelope Stock Footage
Capturing video of the pronghorn antelope can either be incredibly hard (in places where they are hunting) or relatively easy (in places where they are not). Although a cinematographer might be tempted to use the longest lens possible, keep in mind that the pronghorn inhabits some of the windiest places on earth and the hottest (resulting in camera shake and heat distortion)! Places like Wind Cave National Park and Custer State Park in South Dakota are excellent places to film pronghorn antelope because the animals are not hunted and therefore tolerant of people. Newborn fawns are very photogenic (June) and the mating season is another good time to film interesting behavior (September).