A PRAIRIE GOAT COMPANION

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In the third volume of his classic Lives of Game Animals , turn-of-the-century naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton details how he determined, through physical examination and dissection of dead zoo specimens as well as lengthy observation of the living, that the pronghorn uses its hoary posterior as a unique means of communication:

"[The white rump] seems at first like the rest of his spots—a mere patch of white coat; but it is found to be specialized for an important service. It is composed of hair graded from short in the centre, to long at the front edges. Under the skin of the part is a circular muscle by means of which the hair can, in a moment, be raised and spread radially into two great blooming twin chrysanthemums, more or less flattened at the centre. When this is done in the bright sunlight, they shine like tin pans, giving flashes of light that can be seen farther than the animal itself, affording a conspicuous identification mark that must be of great service to the species.

" Seton goes on to explain that the first pronghorn in a herd to spot potential danger will flash a warning, simultaneously releasing a musky scent. These dual alarms are quickly picked up by the rest of the animals, each of which duplicates the alerts so that, in an instant, the entire band is warned and on the lookout.

In pre-Columbian times, the pronghorn was one of the most plentiful, possibly the most plentiful, of the ungulates roaming North America, sharing the vast native grasslands of Western and mid-America with the bison and ranging as far east as the Mississippi River Valley. Seton once estimated that in primitive times North America may have hosted as many as 20 million pronghorns, but later discounted that figure, deciding that it was "a very low—a-far too low—estimate." An earlier researcher—publisher, naturalist, ethnologist arid Audubon Society founder Dr. George Bird Grinnell—speculated that pronghorns might even have outnumbered bison, which are thought to have been some 40 million strong around 1800. In 1908, the U.S. Biological Survey esti mated that no more than 20,000 pronghorns remained in all of Canada and the contiguous 48 states. But the low point was yet to come: By 1915, the total had dwindled to under 15,000. Miraculously, by the early 1920s, primarily because of a total ban on pronghorn hunting nationwide and the establishment of game preserves, the population had more than doubled to an estimated 30,326, including Canada and Mexico (Nelson, 1924).

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