Pronghorn

You may think of Colorado as the place “where the deer and antelope play.” But the American antelope is not an antelope at all. It’s the pronghorn, whose closest relative is the giraffe. Pronghorn have white bands across the throat, white fur on the rump and belly and forked horns they shed every year. You may see them in wide, open spaces across Colorado – or you may not, because pronghorn are fast, sprinting more than 50mph. The world’s second fastest land animal, they’re built for speed: light bones, hollow hair, and for cardiovascular superiority a large windpipe, heart, and lungs. They are not, however, faster than a speeding bullet. Hunters once sold them by the wagonload, and by the 1940s they were nearly extinct. But thanks to wildlife management, today more than 70 thousand pronghorn roam the American West.

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Colorado Postcards are snapshots of our colorful state in sound. They give brief insights into our people and places, our flora and fauna, and our past and present, from every corner of Colorado. See more postcards.