Most of the time when I look at the front page of the Arizona Republic the stories don’t hold my interest but on Saturday the paper ran a front page feature that compelled me to take time out of my day to read.

It was an in depth story on the efforts that several government agencies are making to save the endangered Sonoran Pronghorn. I’d seen many desert pronghorn roaming around Northern Arizona but I wasn’t aware of Sonoran subspecies and how close they came to extinction.

Sonoran Pronghorn (Arizona Republic)

The Sonoran pronghorn is a deer like mammal which some sources name as an antelope but it is truly not one. It is the only animal with branched horns which they shed every year like antlers. They are the fastest land animals in North American, reaching speeds of 60 miles an hour and because they are so elusive, they are also known as “prairie ghosts”.

The Sonoran pronghorn lives in an area that covers about 2.5 million acres of land in Southern Arizona to the west of Tucson and just north of the border with Mexico in an area where water is scarce.

Even though the pronghorn can live on little water, it was the drought of 2002 that brought the species to the brink of extinction. That year the number in the herd dropped to about 21. It was at that point that the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service built a one square mile breeding pen and captured members of the herd to raise with the goal of helping the species recover.

Since 2003, the population has grown to about 90 pronghorn in the wild after successful releases over the last few years with others still residing in the pen for continued breeding. The early success of the program is encouraging and I’m glad the Arizona Republic decided to place this story on the front page to create awareness for this unique animal.