Biggest herd of pronghorn antelope you've seen?

[Red Bullets]

I saw this video from Wyoming and am amazed there are still big herds of pronghorn antelope.

I remember seeing a herd of about 200 to 300 pronghorns near Brooks back in the early 1970's.

Wondering what the biggest herd anyone has seen in Alberta recently? Thinking the big herds in Alberta must be long gone and just a memory.

This is an amazing herd in this video. Sad to see they don't have modified goat friendly fences. To think this is how the herds must have been before the settlers and ranchers came west.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx2xmnIiNWs

[stob]

about the same on the Suffield base main base southeast corner... the same area they had bluetongue a bunch of years ago

[KegRiver]

Holy Hannibal Lecter Batman! That's a herd of em!

I've seen them every time I've been south of hwy 1 but nothing even close to that!

In fact, this spring I spent a week with a group of freinds from the area exploring the area between Clagary and Medicine Hat, from hwy 1 to the US border.
We saw plenty of Antalope in herds of twenty or so, but no large herds.

That video disproves a myth I had heard many years ago, that claimed that Antalope can't jump over fences. Clearly they can.

While I was down south this spring my freinds showed me a fenced grazing lease that had the bottom wire much higher above the ground then any I had ever seen.
They said it was to accomadate the Antalope and sure enough, a few miles down the trail we found a herd of Antalope and we watched as each of them ducked under that fence as they crossed the trail heading for the other side.

[-JR-]

In the mid 80s in the Reddeer river valley we were doing at late season deer hunt and came across a heard around 150 . . Not sure if they always group together that time a year .

[tallieho]

Thanks for sharing.Yea jumping fences,sure got blown out there.I wonder if it's a winter thing[migration].Which i don't think they do.Perhaps food driven.I have heard of winter vehicle collisions where ,many animals are hit on highways,because of herding together.

[Pioneer2]

Saw a 1/2 section near Red Cliff with winter wheat in it packed with antelope in the 90's while hunting in Cyress Hills.

[DiabeticKripple]

Suffield is crawling with them. we saw over 1000 different antelope in 1 day.

they had one path beaten down so good i thought it was an elk trail until i got close and saw the individual tracks. We saw a few groups numbering over 100.

[Sledhead71]

Typically here there is a herd of 70 plus most days.. This year the herd is near 200, very good year for the speed goats.

[KegRiver]

I wonder how many know that there used to be game trails here, in the Peace River district that were a foot wide and six inches deep

You won't see them now, they are too overgrown, but they are still there under the dead leaves and ground vegetation.

Yes we had herds that were as big or perhaps bigger then that herd of Antelope seen in the video.

When I was about seven years old I was out with my dad one day and he pointed out a huge bleached skull lying on the forest floor beside one of those trails. It was similar to a cows skull, something I had seen many times, but it was not a cow skull and I knew it. Dad said it was a Bison skull and I know now that he was right.

I also remember him talking about what it was like when he came to the north in 1933. He said he saw herds of Deer along the hills of the Peace River valley that covered areas as big as our fields.

We think the big herds we see today are remarkable and I am sure they are, for the times we live in.

But let's not forget that there was a time before forest and prairie were turned into fields to feed a growing human population, there were herds that covered many square miles. Where now twenty of anything is a big herd.

[Dylan15]

I have seen a herd in Medicine Hat, on the south ring road that numbered at least 70/80, and wouldn't have been surprised if there were over 120

[Grizzly Adams1]

I saw this video from Wyoming and am amazed there are still big herds of pronghorn antelope.

We're at the extreme northern end of their range, life is tough and they're vulnerable to extreme population fluctuations, one reason it takes years to get a tag.

Grizz

[ram crazy]

There's a herd of about 300 at the farm right now, and some still have horn on their heads. Back in the 80's when I shot my first antelope there were about 500 head about a mile from the house.

[Fish along]

Wow thats a lot of pronghorn,thanks for showing.

[CDNOutdoorsman]

Originally Posted by ram crazy

There's a herd of about 300 at the farm right now, and some still have horn on their heads. Back in the 80's when I shot my first antelope there were about 500 head about a mile from the house.

Why wouldn't they have horn on their heads??? Not sure what you mean by "some still have horn on their heads"?

[ram crazy]

Originally Posted by CDNOutdoorsman

Why wouldn't they have horn on their heads??? Not sure what you mean by "some still have horn on their heads"?

They usually pop their horns off by the beginning of November. You do realize that they shed their horns every year right?

[CDNOutdoorsman]

Originally Posted by ram crazy

They usually pop their horns off by the beginning of November. You do realize that they shed their horns every year right?

To be honest, I did not know that as I was under the impression that horns stay and antlers drop. I guess I just learned something new today, thanks for the insight Ram.

[spoiledsaskhunter]

back in the late 50's, early 60's, folks would take us back to sask to visit relatives. i'll never forget the amount of antelope on both sides of the hwy between medicine hat and maple creek. while making that drive, you couldn't look out the car window without seeing antelope. there were thousands of them along that route. as the years have gone by, they seem to have disappeared. it is only here and there when you look out and see a small bunch.

[slough shark]

Suffield is the place to see big herds of animals, probably the closest we have to what things used to be minus the Buffalo. That’s what it can look like without all sorts of human intrusion and large unspoiled and unfenced tracts of land. The agricultural side of things has benefited the deer but antelope don’t like the development the same way.

[Pioneer2]

Originally Posted by ram crazy

They usually pop their horns off by the beginning of November. You do realize that they shed their horns every year right?

They shed the sheath but the core remains.Don't know about the does?

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Pioneer2

They shed the sheath but the core remains.Don't know about the does?

It's the same for the does.
The only horned animal in the world that sheds the horn sheath every year.
They truly are a unique and remarkable little beast.


IIRC, it was 1984 and my first year of hunting big game.
The province was a what may have been an all time high for Pronghorns, 40.000+....

F&W released 2000 tags good for two does each over the counter in an attempt to bring the population down some for winter.

While on this hunt the Pronghorns were just gathering up into winter herds.
We were hunting in 102, mostly right along the two borders.
I remember crawling over a ridge and looking down into a vast bowl. There were pronghorn everywhere, easily a thousand of them. Herds of a dozen and herds of a couple hundred.... I felt like I was in a frozen Africa.

That day we saw several thousand Pronghorns, and hundreds of Sage grouse.

[ram crazy]

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

It's the same for the does.
The only horned animal in the world that sheds the horn sheath every year.
They truly are a unique and remarkable little beast.


IIRC, it was 1984 and my first year of hunting big game.
The province was a what may have been an all time high for Pronghorns, 40.000+....

F&W released 2000 tags good for two does each over the counter in an attempt to bring the population down some for winter.

While on this hunt the Pronghorns were just gathering up into winter herds.
We were hunting in 102, mostly right along the two borders.
I remember crawling over a ridge and looking down into a vast bowl. There were pronghorn everywhere, easily a thousand of them. Herds of a dozen and herds of a couple hundred.... I felt like I was in a frozen Africa.

That day we saw several thousand Pronghorns, and hundreds of Sage grouse.

Antelope are a very fragile animal and have major peaks a valleys in their lifecycles and it doesn’t take much for the population to be reduced. One bad winter or spring can really have an effect on population and we are on the northern edge of their range so theses peaks and valleys really show. The Sage grouse are in the same boat. We used to have a dancing ground out behind the house and I remember going out in the spring time and watch the mating, it was something to watch.

[WayneChristie]

I dont see huge herds, but where I see them they usually hang out out of sight, especially when they have fawns. actually saw 2 today just outside Brooks, used to see huge herds driving east of Speedy Creek but that was when I was a bunch younger in the military. I have seen the odd one jump a fence but they dont seem to like it. The high not barbed bottom strands are being put in to avoid injuries, there have been a lot of this done around here, one of the big organizers used to be a fixture on the forum here

[stob]

PM me with your coordinates...lol ... at a friends ranch years ago they used to be in the bottom land and either party e me or tailgate me when pheasnat hunting...very cool .. a new pivot was put in and a winter wheat or something...anyways about 100 or so antelope their now

[MountainTi]

Just finishing up a sheep hunt east of Reno in Nevada. Drove by a small cluster of pivots in a remote valley in the Stillwater range and there were literally hundreds of speed goats out there. Impressive to say the least

[stob]

Non traditional places I have seen them is the strathmore a few times and north of hanna

[Salavee]

I recall a herd of over 200 close to Manyberries around 1963. About 25 miles west of there another herd of around 100 the same day. Four of us took 4 Bucks over 16 " on that hunt. One scored 81 1/8 ". Those were the days.

[marky_mark]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

Just finishing up a sheep hunt east of Reno in Nevada. Drove by a small cluster of pivots in a remote valley in the Stillwater range and there were literally hundreds of speed goats out there. Impressive to say the least

Ya those pivots sure attract the animals

[58thecat]

Alberta 50 ish but for a good little while 200 plus in Saskatchewan when they were on a draw tag then one year you could buy a tag across the counter....poof...herds of 20 ish maybe