South Dakota’s pronghorn record is essentially a map of the state’s western grasslands. Of 1,721 records, Custer County alone accounts for 1,104, with Pennington County adding 408, and the named places tell the same story: Custer State Park with 828, Badlands National Park with 293, and Wind Cave National Park with 196.
Built for open country
A pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in North America, capable of roughly 55 miles per hour, and it pairs that speed with eyesight sharp enough to pick out movement at long range across open ground. Both traits only pay off where the horizon is wide, which is why the record hugs the shortgrass prairie and sagebrush flats of the western counties, Buffalo Gap National Grassland and the open parks of the southern Black Hills included, rather than the wooded uplands or the farmed east.
A summer-heavy season
Reports build from May through August, when does drop their fawns in late spring and the young animals grow visible alongside the herds. September brings the rut, with bucks defending harems and sparring with their pronged, annually shed horns, and by winter the animals gather into larger bands on open range where wind keeps the grass swept clear of snow.
Status in South Dakota
NatureServe ranks the pronghorn S5, Secure, in South Dakota, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
