The pronghorn, a close relative of the antelope, is the fastest mammal in North America and an iconic creature in the American West, where an estimated 700,000 roam the high desert and plains. In recent years, however, intensive development — including a natural gas drilling boom in Wyoming and Colorado — has begun to eat away at the pronghorn’s territory. In a video report for Yale Environment 360, journalists Daniel Glick and Ted Wood examine the fate of a herd of pronghorn that has migrated for more than 6,000 years from the Grand Teton Mountains to their wintering grounds. The several hundred pronghorn that still make the 160-mile round-trip migration now face an obstacle course of drilling pads, roads, fences, and new subdivisions. As Glick notes, “The West’s iconic landscapes and animals are paying a steep price for our energy addiction.”
Watch the e360 video