Oklahoma’s Pronghorn: Where Have They Gone?
- BGWT 211


This episode is made possible by support from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Oklahoma Prescribed Burn Association

Great Plains Fire Science Exchange


A pronghorn running across the Oklahoma Panhandle is a familiar prairie sight, but its future in the state deserves a closer look. In this episode of Blazin’ Grazin’ and Other Wild Things, Oklahoma State University wildlife professor Sue Fairbanks joins John Weir, Laura Goodman, and Mark Turner to unpack a five-year research project investigating the population’s decline. By combining field research with aerial survey data, researchers estimated an average annual decline of about 15% over the period discussed. GPS collars also helped answer an important question: the monitored animals were not simply migrating out of Oklahoma and escaping the count.


Two factors stood out in the population modeling: survival of adult females and survival of fawns. Fairbanks describes how fawn survival remained around 11% during the first two study years, then rose to about 41% during the later two years. The discussion explores how drought may affect a mother’s condition well beyond the return of rain, why coyote predation does not tell the whole story, and how native grassland supports both mothers and young. Researchers found better survival associated with larger native grassland patches and greater distance from cropland.

For landowners, the conversation offers several reasons to rethink familiar assumptions. Pronghorn primarily eat broadleaf plants rather than the grasses cattle rely on, and they generally crawl under fences instead of jumping over them. Maintaining native habitat, considering wildlife passage when managing fences, and reducing adult female harvest are all discussed as ways to support pronghorn. Along the way, listeners hear memorable field stories about hidden fawns, remarkable speed, and mothers that take defending their young seriously.