Pronghorns are uniquely North American ungulates whose extraordinary speed evolved alongside now-extinct Pleistocene predators. Their welfare today is threatened by fencing, habitat fragmentation, and climate-driven range changes.
Pronghorn welfare is primarily threatened by infrastructure that intersects with their migratory behavior. Barbed wire bottom strands cause lacerations and entanglement as pronghorns attempt to crawl under fences. Some die from injuries; others from exhaustion and exposure when trapped in fence lines. Fencing that prevents access to traditional migration routes creates physiological stress from range restriction and access to seasonal forage. Climate-driven drought kills the sagebrush communities that pronghorns depend on for winter nutrition, causing starvation. Individual pronghorns that survive harsh winters in degraded habitat experience prolonged nutritional stress with cascading reproductive and immune consequences.