STATUS OF THE PRONGHOENED 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the " V " of the old Spanish having been replaced by the modern 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 shoAvn 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 almxost 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, 1922-192^1- 
Region 
Arizona 
California 
Colorado 
Idaho 
Kansas. 
Montana 
Nebraska 
Nevada 
New Mexico 
North Dakota 
Oklahoma 
Oregon 
South Dakota 
Texas.. 
Utah 
Wyoming 
Total, United States 
Areas 
Number 
of ante- 
lope 
18 
651 
6 
1, 057 
28 
1,233 
14 
1, 485 
1 
8 
44 
3,027 
10 
187 
11 
4, 253 
31 
1,682 
6 
225 
2 
23 
4 
2,039 
11 
680 
42 
2,407 
10 
670 
27 
6,977 
264 
26, 604 
Region 
Canada: 
Alberta 
Saskatchewan. 
Total, Canada. 
Mexico: 
Coahuila i 
Chihuahua 1 
Durango 
Sonora 
Lower California ' 
Total, Mexico.. 
Summary: 
United States. 
Canada 
Mexico 
Grand total. 
Areas 
264 
14 
286 
Number 
of ante- 
lope 
1,030 
297 
1,327 
600 
700 
(?) 
595 
500 
2, 395 
26, 604 
1,327 
1 2, 395 
30, 326 
1 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 16 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 Eiver but a vastly 
greater area. Where the pronghorn occurred with the buffalo people 
best 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- 
