The Associated Press
BISMARCK -- A record number of pronghorn hunting licenses are available in North Dakota this year, a decade after a harsh winter wiped out nearly 75 percent of the animals in the state.
The state Game and Fish Department will issue 6,095 licenses for the 2007 season this fall, up 2,285 a year ago, said Randy Kreil, chief of the agency's wildlife division.
North Dakota's pronghorn population is estimated at about 15,000, up from 12,500 a year ago, Kreil said.
State Game and 0Fish Department deputy director Roger Rostvet said the state's pronghorn population is as strong as it's been in more than a century.
ADVERTISEMENT
Three-quarters of the state's pronghorn herd was killed or driven off during the winter of 1996-97, wildlife officials said. A 1998 census tallied just 4,000 animals.
Roger Johnson, a Game and Fish Department big game biologist, said several mild winters have helped the numbers of pronghorn, which are native to North Dakota.
"They're not the toughest animals on the northern Great Plains. But when we have a series of nice winters, they can produce pretty good," Johnson said.
Pronghorn have difficulty foraging in deep snow and either die of starvation or migrate to milder areas, wildlife officials say.
Rostvet and Johnson said harsh winters in the late 1970s prompted state officials to close the hunting season for pronghorn for at least two years in the 1980s.
"In the late 1970s, big ice storms crusted over the food supply and some herds by the Canadian border have never really recovered since then," Johnson said. "Populations south and west of the Missouri River are still doing well."
Pronghorn are brown and white and are commonly called antelope or goats, but biologists say they are neither. They shed their curved horns annually and are known for keen vision, hearing and smell as well as speed.
The National Park Service says pronghorn can reach speeds of 60 mph.
ADVERTISEMENT
Only about 100 pronghorn existed in the state in the early 1900s, and their numbers dwindled to about 50 in the early 1940s, Rostvet said.
"They have a tendency of getting out of Dodge when the weather gets tough," Johnson said.
This year's gun season is Oct. 5-21, and archery season runs from Aug. 31-Oct. 7. The gun season is open only to North Dakota residents.
