STATUS OF THE PRONGHOK-NED ANTELOPE, 1922-1924 3 



animals attracted the attention of the first European observers. 

 Throughout the antelope country in Mexico and the southwestern 

 United States the Mexicans still term these animals "berrendos," 

 the " v " of the old Spanish having been replaced by the modern 

 " b." As a matter of course the pronghorn must have been a familiar 

 animal to the hardy Spaniards, who overran all parts of Mexico and 

 much of the southwestern and western United States in their search 

 for gold, but their records of the animal life seen are exceedingly 

 scanty. 



Subsequent occupation of the continent has shown that the prong- 

 horn ranged over an enormous area. (See map, fig. 1.) It occurred 

 over parts of the present Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and 

 Alberta, in Canada. In the United States it occupied the country 

 from western Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, reach- 

 ing the Gulf coast near the mouth of the Rio Grande, and west to 

 eastern Washington, Oregon, and the Pacific coast in California. 

 In Mexico it occupied the open plains country of! the tableland 

 south almost to 20° of latitude, nearly to the Valley of Mexico; also 

 the western part of Sonora and most of Lower California. 



Table 1. — Distribution of antelope in North America, 1922-1924 



Region 



Arizona 



California 



Colorado ' 



Idaho 



Kansas 



Montana 



Nebraska 



Nevada 



New Mexico 



North Dakota 



Oklahoma 



Oregon 



South Dakota 



Texas. 



Ctah 



Wyoming 



Total, United States 



Areas 



264 



Number 

 of ante- 

 lope 



651 

 1,057 

 1,233 

 1,485 



8 



3,027 



187 



4,253 



1,682 



225 



23 



2,039 



680 



2,407 



670 



6,977 



26,604 



Region 



Canada: 



Alberta 



Saskatchewan- 



Total, Canada... 



Mexico: 



Coahuila 1 



Chihuahua ! 



Durango 



Sonora 



Lower California L 



Total, Mexico. 



Summary: 



United States. 



Canada 



Mexico 



Grand total. 



Areas 



264 

 14 



Number 

 of ante- 

 lope 



1,030 

 297 



600 

 700 

 (?) 

 595 

 500 



i 2, 395 



26,604 



1,327 



i 2, 395 



30, 326 



i Estimated. 



Through the occupation of its territory by man the pronghorn has 

 become extinct in many of its former haunts, but it has survived in 

 limited numbers over an amazing proportion of its original range in 

 Canada, Mexico, and in 1G of the western States of this country. 



Originally over most of the enormous territory occupied the prong- 

 horn was very abundant. Its range covered not only practically all 

 of the buffalo country west of the Mississippi River but a vastly 

 greater area. Where the pronghorn occurred with the buffalo people 

 Deal qualified to judge consider that it exceeded that animal in num- 

 bers. It. has been estimated that the buffalo herds at one time num- 

 bered from thirty to sixty million animals. In view of the greater 

 territory occupied by the pronghorn and its known abundance, it 

 may be considered a conservative estimate to place its probable origi- 



