FEBRUARY 2017 Werner Wildlife Museum
405 East 15th Street
Casper WY, 82601
307-235-2108
EVENTS CALENDAR
FEBRUARY-APRIL 2017
FEBRUARY 2
Call for entries. Guidelines and entry
forms available for spring fine crafts
show, entitled “Elemental Earth:
Artisans and Nature.”
FEBRUARY 16
7 p.m. Wildlife Study Group. Stacey
Scott, Audubon Society. “Silent Wings
and Night Vision: Wyoming’s Owls.”
FEBRUARY 27
Art show, “Sacred Space,” ends.
MARCH 16
7 p.m. Wildlife Study Group.
Amanda Withroder, Wyoming
Game and Fish Staff biologist,
Habitat Protection Program.
“Wildlife Conservation in a Boom
and Bust State: Wildlife and
Energy Development.”
APRIL 7
4:30 p.m. Deadline for entries
for “Elemental Earth: Artisans
and Nature.”
APRIL 13
4-6 p.m. Open house and
opening for “Elemental Earth:
Artisans and Nature”
APRIL 20
7 p.m. Wildlife Study Group.
Justin Binfet, Wyoming Game and
Fish wildlife management coordinator,
Casper Division. “Chronic Wasting
Disease Epidemiology.”
Werner Wildlife Museum
encourages community
participation! If you are interested
in attending a program, presenting
a program or sponsoring a
speaker, please contact India or
Eileen at 307-235-2108 Monday
through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
or send an e-mail to
[email protected].
The public is welcome at all
presentations. Reservations are
appreciated but walk-ins will not
be turned away.
Volume 2 • Issue 1
Running with the Wind:
Wyoming’s Pronghorn
T
hough referred to colloquially as antelope or
goats, the pronghorn is neither. Antilocapra
americana is the sole remaining species of the
family Antilocapridae which once included a
variety of beasts with bizarre and beautiful horns.
Pronghorn and their kin first appeared in the fossil
record during the early Miocene epoch about 20
million years ago. Unlike bison which originated
in Siberia, pronghorn are autochthonous, which
means “originating or formed in the place where
found.” Some scientists argue for an Old World
origin with migration to North America during the
late Oligocene but to date, no Old World ancestor
has been identified.
Historically, antelope ranged from central
Canada to the plains just north of Mexico City,
and from the Mississippi River and Texas gulf
coast to the Pacific Ocean. Their present range
extends from southern Alberta to northern
Mexico, and from the western Dakotas and
Nebraska to southern Idaho and southeastern
Oregon. Pronghorn travel hundreds of miles each
year between summer breeding grounds and
winter feeding grounds via routes established by
their ancestors millennia ago. The route between
Yellowstone National Park and the Upper Green
River Basin is one of the longest large mammal
migration corridors left in North America though
it is threatened by human activities, including
agricultural and energy development.
North America contained about 45 million
pronghorn when the Lewis and Clark expedition
headed west in 1804. By the beginning of the
twentieth century, only 13,000 remained due
to overhunting, wanton killing, and habitat
destruction. In 1902, Wyoming State Game
Warden D.C. Nowlin noted, “Unless better
protection is afforded, our antelope are doomed
to destruction. Too many of our citizens consider
it a trivial offense to kill an antelope whenever
the occasion offers, regardless of laws or
season.” At that time, antelope in Wyoming
numbered around 1,900 animals, most of which
were scattered throughout remote portions of
Sweetwater and Fremont Counties. The Wyoming
legislature ended hunting in 1909 to prevent
further decline with other states following suite.
By 1926, Wyoming’s antelope population had
risen to approximately 20,000 and in 1927
Wyoming issued 500 antelope licenses.
After half a century of protection and programs
to reestablish pronghorn in historic ranges,
pronghorn numbers rose to almost a million
animals nationwide with as many as twothirds of that number located within a 300 mile
radius of Casper. More recently, drought, harsh
winters, destruction of habitat, and a deadly
bout of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD)
dropped Wyoming’s pronghorn population from
a high of half a million animals in 2010 to just
over 400,000 in 2013. Recent mild winters
and increased fawn survival have allowed the
population to recover somewhat, allowing for
cautious optimism.
Pronghorn are the ultimate long distance
runners, able to maintain speeds of over 30 mph
Continued on page 2
Werner Wildlife T
Museum Mission:
he mission of the Werner Wildlife Museum at Casper
College is to promote learning and appreciation of the
Earth’s natural history through preservation of collections,
exhibits and outreach as consistent with the mission and
goals of Casper College.
caspercollege.edu/werner-wildlife-museum
Running with the Wind ... Continued
for several miles and capable of speed
bursts that at 60 mph rival those of an
African cheetah. Their skeletons are strong
and comparatively light. The skeleton of a
140 pound male human weighs about 18
pounds, comprising 13 percent of the total
body weight. The skeleton of a 140 pound
male antelope averages 11.5 pounds or
barely 8 percent of the total body weight.
Those light bones endure the stress of
running at top speed over sagebrush,
cacti, protruding rocks, and holes dug
by badgers, prairie dogs, and ground
squirrels. Pronghorn hooves are large and
well-padded, with wide separation between
sections to absorb impact shock. Unlike
other ungulates, pronghorn evolved
without dewclaws which could be
damaged while running across rough
ground at high speeds.
A pronghorn has a larger heart, greater
lung surfaces, higher concentrations
of hemoglobin in the blood, and higher
density muscle capillaries than like-sized
2
mammals, which further facilitates rapid
intake and delivery of great amounts of
oxygen to muscles. Reaching up to 5
inches in circumference, a pronghorn’s
windpipe is twice the size of a human
trachea, allowing for transport of four and
a half times as much air in the same period
of time. Muscle cell mitochondria, which
utilize oxygen in the production of energy,
are more numerous than those found in
humans and nearly three times as large.
Pronghorn have much less body fat and
a smaller rumen than other ungulates. Even
their hair is lightweight in comparison to its
bulk. With fine bones and limited fat and
gut contents, pronghorn are easily able
to outrun and outlast any living predator.
Some scientists believe that pronghorn
evolved as prey for North American
jaguars, cheetahs, dire wolves, lions,
hyenas, and short-faced bear, none of
which survive today.
Pronghorn regularly withstand extreme
weather conditions, including high heat
and blizzards wherein temperatures drop
to -40° F and wind speeds exceed 50
mph. Their distinctive brown and white
coat is composed of thick hairs, which
contain large air cells for insulation and
can be readily raised and lowered as
environmental conditions dictate. When the
hair is erect, the resulting layer of insulation
is as much as 2 inches thick. Conversely,
the hair may be laid flat against the body
to reduce the insulation layer in order to
dissipate heat. When a pronghorn spots a
threat, its rump hairs rise, emphasizing the
white patch under its tail, which acts as a
red flag to warn other antelope of danger.
Pronghorn are well adapted to an
ecosystem characterized by unpalatable
vegetation and scarce water resources.
Thanks in part to a large and efficient liver,
pronghorn thrive on plants containing
toxins that will readily kill other animals,
including locoweed, greasewood, rabbit
brush, larkspur, broom snakeweed, and
silvery lupine. They are especially fond
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we encourage you to report this. If you report this to an employee, she or he must notify our college’s Title IX Coordinator, Linda Toohey, associate vice president for student services, 125 College Drive,
Pronghorn regularly withstand extreme
weather conditions.
of sagebrush, which in the winter may
comprise 80 percent of their food despite
the toxic essential oils found in many
Artemisia species. Pronghorn get most of
the moisture they require from the food
they eat and are able to go long periods
without drinking water.
Horns consist of a bony core covered
with a keratinous sheath. Sheaths are
shed annually, usually in November
or early December, leaving horn cores
that are covered with long whitish hair
that will eventually form new sheathes.
Replacement of the main shaft begins
immediately, with the prong appearing in
late January to early February. A buck’s
horns are fully-grown and ready for
battle when the rutting season begins in
late August or early September. Female
pronghorn may have short and usually
unbranched horns, which they irregularly
shed and regrow. Some does sport several
years’ worth of stuck together
horn cones.
During the summer, mature male
pronghorn live alone or form bachelor
herds. Does and fawns gather together
for safety and companionship, which
includes sharing care of the young. It isn’t
unusual to see a single doe with several
fawns in her care. Depending on location,
rut begins in the late summer or fall. By
their third summer, bucks are ready to
establish territories, which vary in size
from fifty acres to over a square mile and
contain anywhere from several to dozens
of females. Although bucks do engage in
bloody combat to take and hold territories,
such behavior is costly in terms of energy
expenditure, and can result in the death of
one or both of the combatants. Establishing
a territory and breeding rights that go
with it is more commonly achieved by
conspicuous visual and vocal display
and copious olfactory marking of the
claimed areas.
Females give birth in the mid to late
spring following a 250 day gestation
period. First pregnancies generally result
in single births. Subsequent pregnancies
produce twins if the range is in good
condition and there has been sufficient
feed throughout the winter. At an average
birthweight of 8.5 pounds, pronghorn
fawns are large compared to terrestrial
mammals of similar size. Fawns stand
within a day of birth. Shortly thereafter,
they can sprint at speeds up to 25 mph
though they prefer to spend their time
lying quietly in tall grass, depending on
camouflage and stillness for safety. Less
than half of each season’s fawns survive
their first two months. Those that do
survive reach adult size in six months and
have a life expectancy of 9 to 10 years in
the wild.
(Special thanks to the late Fred
Eiserman whose work at Werner Wildlife
Museum included compiling much of the
information included in this article.)
Walter H. Nolte Gateway Center, Room 412, Casper, WY 82601; 307-268-2667; [email protected] about the basic facts of the incident. Employee concerns should be directed to the human
resources director. For more information about your options, please go to: caspercollege.edu/nondiscrimination.
3
Prairie Dogs: Pests or Keystone Species
BY: BAILEY CURRAH
Living in Wyoming, it is not uncommon
to use prairie dogs for target practice. You
do not have to obtain a license and most
folks tend to believe this is for the greater
good, as these rodents are generally
viewed as pests. In fact, hunting prairie
dogs is often encouraged as they are
considered damaging to the grasslands
and agriculture, because they feed on
plants and create holes in the landscape.
Many small mammals get this type of bad
rap due to high-density populations and
the belief that they have a negative impact
on crops or livestock. However, identifying
a species as a pest can be misleading
because many “pests” play critical roles
in the environment. Partly due to the bad
PR they get for their activities, prairie dogs
are being eradicated at an alarming rate.
Their large and dense colonies are simple
to locate. Their predictable emergence
from burrows makes them easy to shoot.
Approximately two million prairie dogs are
killed per year due to hunting activities,
which is about 14 percent of their current
population. Despite the negative image they
have gained in local culture, prairie dogs
are actually an important and beneficial
species in western landscapes, which
provide benefits to humans and wildlife.
Prairie dogs (Cynomys) are burrowing
rodents that colonize grasslands and feed
on plants. They can be found throughout
the United States, Mexico, and Canada in
tall, short, or mixed-grass prairies. There
are five different species of prairie dogs
including Utah prairie dog, Gunnison’s
prairie dog, white-tailed prairie dog,
Mexican prairie dog, and black-tailed prairie
dog. Despite their declining population, with
only 2 percent of the original population
remaining, their colonies are generally quite
large. Prairie dogs are highly social; there
are about 15-26 families in every colony.
4
Each family has one dominant male, a
few females, and 4 to 6 young per female.
They breed only once a year with only half
of the pups surviving within the first year.
The burrows that the prairie dog families
other they simply walk away. However,
if they are strangers, the prairie dogs will
chase and aggressively attack each other
until one runs off. Another social attribute
seen in prairie dogs is communication
Contrary to their bad rap in popular culture, prairie dogs play a critical role in grassland environments.
reside in are 2-3 meters below ground and
5-10 meters long, with about six entrances
for every burrow. These burrows protect
the prairie dogs from predators, extreme
weather, and environmental threats such
as fires. There are chambers throughout
the burrows specifically used as nurseries,
toilets, sleeping quarters, and air chambers
to prevent flooding.
Prairie dogs can be extremely territorial
but recognize and greet family members,
or other close members of similar social
groups, by “kissing” each other. This
practice, which resembles kissing, involves
interlocking their teeth in order to determine
if another member is a friend or stranger. If
the prairie dogs are comfortable with each
through distinct warning, territorial, and
mating calls. They have the ability to alarm
their colonies based on the specific threat
that they are facing, whether it is a human,
a bird, or a coyote, which then influences
their behavior. For instance, if the alarm is
set off due to a smaller predator, such as a
coyote, only the prairie dogs in the
coyote’s line of vision will burrow. If an
alarm call is set off due to a human, all of
the members of a colony will take shelter in
their burrow. They have even been shown
to be communicating information about
us in their calls, with their calls differing
reliably by the color of clothing we wear or
how large we are.
Continued on page 6
Arts and Crafts Exhibitions at
Werner Wildlife Museum
W
erner Wildlife Museum is more
than simply a fantastic collection
of animal exhibits from around the world:
it also permanently houses a collection of
fine wildlife bronzes and twice yearly hosts
exhibits of work by artists and artisans
from around the state.
Two dozen bronzes by Pershing Geiger,
Terry J. Murphy, William Davis, Rocco, and
Lee Lester went on display at the Werner in
the fall of 2014. The gift of an anonymous
donor, the bronzes are displayed
throughout the museum in conjunction with
related exhibits.
On March 1, 2017, the call for entries
opens for the spring fine crafts show, titled
“Essential Earth: Artisans and Nature.”
This show is dedicated to decorative arts
and is open to all artisans who work with
natural materials including, but not limited
to, fiber, leather, bone, horn, wood, stone,
gems, and metal. Items which visually
incorporate more than 5 percent man made
materials are excluded from the exhibit as
are paintings, drawings, photographs, and
similar works.
Painters and photographers are welcome
to enter the all-media art show held each
autumn. Though the title of the show
changes yearly, it is always devoted to
work depicting Wyoming’s wildlife and wild
places. In keeping with this theme, images
An exhibit of handmade crafts celebrating life in Wyoming,
“Elemental Earth: Artisans and Nature,” is open to Wyoming
artisans who work with natural materials including but not
limited to: fiber, leather, bone, horn, wood, stone, gems,
and metal. Items which visually incorporate more than five
percent man made materials are excluded from the exhibit as
are paintings and photographs. Size constraints may apply
due to space limitations.
are limited to those that can be found in the
wild: no works featuring humans, domestic
animals, feral animals, or trappings of
civilization are accepted. The present
show is titled “Sacred Space: Wyoming’s
Wilderness” and will remain on view until
the end of February.
Exhibitors must currently reside in the
State of Wyoming or be a faculty member,
employee, or student at Casper College.
Entries must be original and entirely
the work of the exhibitor; derivatives of
copyrighted material will not be accepted.
For further clarification, please contact the
museum staff.
Deadline for Entries:
Friday, April 7, 2017 at 4:30 p.m.
Exhibit will run from April 13-July 13, 2017
To request entry forms and guidelines, please call
307-235-2108, email [email protected],
or come by the museum.
5
Casper College
Werner Wildlife Museum
125 College Drive
Casper, WY 82601
CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED
Prairie Dogs ... Continued
Contrary to their bad rap in popular
culture, prairie dogs play a critical role in
grassland environments. Their activities
create habitat for many animals that move
into their dwellings, such as burrowing
owls, rattlesnakes, and rabbits. In addition,
prairie dogs are an important food source for
predators, including the black-footed ferret,
coyotes, and birds of prey. Perhaps more
important to ranchers, their grazing patterns
positively influence the nutrients that plants
rely on, improving the vegetation for bison
and cattle. It has also been discovered that
prairie dogs can benefit humans due to
turning and aerating soil as a result of
their burrowing.
Recently, several studies have attempted
to quantify the specific ecosystem services
prairie dogs provide for humans. Research
in Mexico indicated that prairie dog activity
resulted in soil with better water holding
capabilities, which in turn improved the
recharge of groundwater resources due to
rain, increased plant growth, and provided
better regulation of soil erosion. An increase
in vegetation benefits grazers and livestock,
which is valuable for farmers. Improvements
in groundwater recharge and decreases in
erosion are also valuable for farmers, as
well as land managers and homeowners
who rely on wells. Similar benefits may
accrue in Casper, Wyoming, since a recent
study found that the soil in prairie dog towns
contained more moisture in the surrounding
soils. In an area as dry as Casper, the ability
of the soil to capture and hold moisture is
a particularly important service these small
mammals preform.
Small burrowing mammals like prairie
dogs are often classified as pests, which
is a dangerous label. By treating them
as pests and actively targeting them we
are overlooking their critical role in the
environment. The good news is that we
don’t have to wait until their declining
numbers result in negative impacts. Raising
awareness about the importance of prairie
dogs and the dangers of eradication is the
first step to support this species. Contrary to
popular perception, prairie dogs are acting
to improve Wyoming vegetation and soils,
rather than just destroying them, and are
helping to improve the quantity and quality of
the groundwater upon which we all rely.
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