By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – This month’s Animal of the Month could easily be mistaken for a deer, antelope or a goat due to his horns or antlers, which are actually neither horns nor antlers.
Thistle is a 5-month-old pronghorn who is getting used to his home at the NEW Zoo after coming from a zoo in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The genus species name Antilocapra americana translates to “American goat antelope,” but pronghorns like Thistle are neither, said Carmen Murach, animal curator at the NEW Zoo.
“Their horns are neither horns or antlers, but some weird combination of the two,” Murach said.
For all other animals, horns are made from keratin, the same stuff of human fingernails, and come to a single point.
Both sexes also have horns, like a rhinoceros.
Antlers, on the other hand, are made of bone and shed every year, like white-tailed deer or moose.
Thistle’s pointers are covered in keratin, which eventually sheds, but the bone underneath remains.
This makes pronghorns, or pronghorn antelope as they are also called, a species unique onto itself.
Thistle will grow up to be about 130 pounds, which is more like a goat than a deer, and he will be able to reach speeds of up to 50 mph, Murach said.
“Their speed, it doesn’t surpass cheetahs, but it’s getting close,” she said.
Also, unlike a deer, Thistle and other pronghorns can’t jump.
“One of their big problems are fences,” Murach said. “They really don’t jump fences and that restricts their travel and cuts them off from food and mates. The solution is to make a path under the fences because they do crawl.”
Before the west was won, pronghorns and bison dotted the landscape, but early settlers quickly reduced the populations.
“Pronghorns are doing OK,” she said. “They took a big hit during that time, but they weren’t quite as decimated as bison in the wild.”
Murach said the NEW Zoo is looking at getting a few female pronghorns so they can help the population rebound, but none are currently available.
However, pronghorns are making a comeback across the western part of North America thanks in part to conservation efforts.
This is why the NEW Zoo has joined a Zoo-Park Partnership for America’s Keystone Wildlife with Badlands National Park, just outside Rapid City, South Dakota.
The park, which covers nearly a quarter of a million acres, is the natural home to plenty of wildlife at the NEW Zoo, including bison, pronghorns and the endangered black-footed ferret.
“We can help the Badlands National Park educate people what they may see when they get out there and educate people about the efforts to restore and preserve habitat,” Murach said.
As a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the NEW Zoo can share resources and expertise to restore and maintain habitats and wildlife populations on public lands, she said.
Every year the NEW Zoo sends zookeepers to the Badlands to help with the black-footed ferret population, but Murach said planning is in the works to offer a trip for community volunteers to go out to the Badlands and make a difference.
“Our focus is conservation,” she said. “The bison and pronghorns are good examples of animals that were in trouble, particularly the bison. They wouldn’t be here today without the help of zoos.”
To stay updated with coming information about the volunteer trip to the Badlands and other NEW Zoo happenings, visit newzoo.org.