1 88 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



acquaintance with the plains antelope I visited 

 the Yellowstone region, thinking that I was well 

 grounded in all antelope habits. One day I 

 came upon a flock in a deep grassy forest bay 

 in the edge of a dense woods. Thinking to get 

 close I walked in behind them. To my amaze- 

 ment they darted into the woods, dodging trees 

 right and left like lightning, and hurdling fallen 

 trees as readily as any deer or mountain sheep 

 that I have seen. They well illustrated a 

 phase of animal behaviour called ecology, or 

 response to environment. 



The pronghorn or antelope is distinctly Ameri- 

 can. Fossilized antelope bones have been 

 found in western Nebraska that are estimated 

 to be two million years old. This antelope 

 family is not related to the African or Asiatic 

 antelope, nor to any American mammal species; 

 it is alone in the world. 



Many prehistoric species of animals that lived 

 in the same scenes with the ancient ancestors 

 of the antelope have been extinct for thousands of 

 years. The rhinoceros, toothed birds, American 

 horses, ponderous reptiles, and numerous other 

 species failed to do what the antelope did read- 

 just to each radical change and survive. Climatic 

 changes, new food, strange enemies, uplifts, sub- 

 sidences, wild volcanic outpourings, trie-great Ice 

 Age over all these the antelope has triumphed. 



