My friend Sharon and I were especially lucky last Thursday. Driving back from Lake John in the northwest corner of North Park, we spotted a herd of female pronghorns. They were intently watching something.

The Harem Watches

Click on the picture above to enlarge

Then, we saw what they saw. Two male pronghorns were running as fast as they could. And pronghorns are fast — they are the fastest land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, perhaps as fast as 50 mph. In the whole world, only the cheetah is faster. But pronghorns can sustain higher speeds much longer than cheetahs can.

I don’t know how long these two males ran, but I took hundreds of shot of them in a 15-minute period. These pronghorns weren’t playing. They were racing to determine who would win the harem.

The Chase

Click on the picture above to enlarge

People have often written that pronghorns can’t jump. But I sort of think that these two could.

The Jump

Click on the picture above to enlarge

Eventually, they stopped running. That’s when they started to fight.

The Fight Begins

Click on the picture above to enlarge

The Fight Continues

Click on the picture above to enlarge

The Victor

Click on the picture above to enlarge

This pronghorn may look exhausted. But now his real work begins.