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Speed trap: Capturing pronghorn for conservation
How the resilience of one Utah pronghorn herd has ensured the conservation and success of other herds throughout the Western U.S.
Morgan Hinton
Southern Region Wildlife Biologist
If you've found yourself in the Western deserts or high plains of North America, you've likely caught a glimpse of one of the continent's oddest looking and most incredible mammals: a pronghorn.
The sole surviving members of the one-million-year-old family Antilocapridae, pronghorn are neither antelope nor goats, as their Latin name (Antilocapra americana) suggests. And they aren't actually related to African antelopes (family Bovidae) at all; in fact, evolutionarily they are more closely related to giraffes and okapis.
Although their appearance may seem strange to us, a pronghorn's prominent features are crucial adaptations that help them survive in their environment. Their large, black eyes have 320-degree vision and similar magnification to 10× binoculars, which allows them to see objects up to three miles away! Their bodies are built for speed: Pronghorn can run as fast as 60 mph, making them the world's second-fastest land animal behind the cheetah.
These adaptations have allowed the species to persist in hard years and thrive in good years on North American landscapes since the Pleistocene epoch (the Ice Age). The current population of pronghorn across North America is estimated to be around 930,000 animals, with just over 13,000 residing in Utah.
Utah's own pronghorn nursery herd
Although pronghorn are originally native to Wayne County and the surrounding area, they were extirpated (hunted to extinction) during the Great Depression. In 1964 and 1965, the DWR — then called the Utah Fish and Game Department — began a reintroduction effort by translocating 129 pronghorn from Montana to Parker Mountain. Thanks to the high quality forage and frequent precipitation, the herd grew to 840 animals by 1975. That year, wildlife managers decided to construct a trap that would allow biologists to capture large numbers of pronghorn, and relocate them to create or bolster other populations.
Using traps wasn't a new or unique strategy, although it's one especially well suited for capturing large mammals like pronghorn. Long before the DWR's twentieth-century trapping efforts, Indigenous peoples captured pronghorn and other animals using drive traps. The remains of these ancient traps can still be found on the Parker today!
The high productivity of the Parker pronghorn herd created a continuous excess of animals that allowed for trapping to become a frequent practice for many years. Between 1975-2014, about 5,500 pronghorn were translocated from the Parker trap to 17 wildlife management units in Utah, a Utah state park, three additional states and one Tribal Nation.
How to catch America's fastest land animal
The wildlife trap, also called a boma, consists of two permanent wing fences that are connected to nonpermanent parts of the trap installed a few days before the pronghorn capture. We create a temporary runway of netting stretched between steel posts, and a netted corral with tarps called the trap circle.
Groups of 40-70 pronghorn are carefully herded from the surrounding area into this trap using a helicopter piloted by a wildlife capture professional. When the animals reach the trap circle, the gates are closed behind them and tarps are hung to reduce visual stimulation. Once the animals have had time to settle down, half of the trap circle is sectioned off with all animals on one side. Biologists then enter the empty side of the trap circle where 8-10 animals are released at a time.
The biologists hand capture each pronghorn, inject them with a light sedative, and secure them with hobbles and blindfolds to reduce stress on the animals. Data is then collected to assess the sex, age and overall health of each pronghorn. They are then loaded onto wildlife transport trailers to be taken to and released into their new homes!
Trapping and tracking in 2025
Due to drought and other limiting factors, the productivity of the Parker pronghorn herd declined and trapping was halted for over a decade. Following a few good wet years, the herd grew once again and exceeded the population objective for the management unit. After careful consideration, we decided to remove the excess animals through trapping to supplement struggling herds throughout the state.
In January 2025, 310 pronghorn were trapped and translocated to the Cache, Mt. Dutton, San Rafael and Southwest Desert management units. Previously, success of the transplants was not quantitatively assessed. This year, however, the DWR teamed up with researchers from Brigham Young University and deployed over 270 GPS collars to monitor survival and movement of translocated pronghorn.
The future of Parker pronghorn
There are no plans to trap more pronghorn on Parker Mountain in the near future. However, the current research study will help evaluate success of the translocations, and aid the DWR in improving wildlife capture, processing and transporting techniques for future years of trapping. In the meantime, the Parker herd will continue to be intensely monitored in order to protect the existing population while also ensuring it’s managed for the long-term success of the herd.
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