Pronghorns are an ancient species dating back nearly 20 million years-the only survivor of a group of hoofed mammals that originated in North America, and one of the few living links with the Ice Age. Pronghorns successfully survived the late Cenozoic and Pleistocene eras, as well as massive changes 11,000 years ago when a mysterious mass extinction claimed many other species. Indeed, the pronghorn was here to greet the first humans who set foot in North America, and ancestral Native Americans hunted pronghorn as much as 30,000 years ago. The pronghorn may have endured in part because it's tough. If necessary a pronghorn can go days without water, and will eat and thrive on plants no other grazing animal will touch-even thorny cactus.
Pronghorns successfully survive both bitter cold and desert heat equally well.
No other creature in the world is related to the pronghorn. Using their distinctive white rump patches, pronghorns have a very unusual but effective method of warning others in the herd. Special muscles allow the pronghorn to flare its white rump hairs, instantly signaling a danger message to the entire herd. Even fawns just a few days old can signal other pronghorns by flashing their white rump patches. Perhaps this curious name is appropriate.