29 February 2024

Though we call this animal a pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana), it is not an antelope at all.

While I was on Road Scholar’s Southern Africa Birding Safari last month I saw seven species of antelopes (not my photos; these are from Wikimedia Commons).

Because the pronghorn’s appearance is similar, I can see why he’s called an antelope, but his nearest relatives are other African animals, the giraffe and okapi.

Pronghorns probably resemble antelopes because they run like them, a trait they acquired to escape cheetahs(!). Cheetahs used to be in North America but disappeared a long time ago.

The pronghorn never stopped running.