The pronghorns primary defense is its ability to run. Adults reach top speeds of over 50 m.p.h. and can sustain 30 m.p.h. over the course of several miles. The fastest land animal in North America, pronghorns also have the ability to see moving objects up to 2 miles away. After showing this segment, a discussion could take place about the location of the eyes on the head of the animal. Predators having both eyes in front of head to stalk prey.
Prey have one eye located on each side of the head.
This allows better range of vision to watch out for danger. The teacher could talk about how the sight of danger is sometimes more reliable than hearing or smell which can be effected by the wind, etc. While these defenses help to minimize losses to natural predators, pronghorns suffered greatly due to human expansion into the west. By the early part of this century, a combination of loss of habitat and hunting reduced the total number of individuals to less than 20,000. We encourage duplication for educational non-commercial use.