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<\/p>\nThe pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the western hemisphere and I was glad I had my lens on this handsome buck when it suddenly\u00a0began to accelerate.<\/p>\n
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First a little background (I include this first image only for context).\u00a0 Ten days ago on Antelope Island I was watching and photographing a group of four pronghorn fawns that were being watched over by a single doe (this social arrangement is sometimes called\u00a0a\u00a0nursery).\u00a0 There was a buck nearby who\u00a0was carefully watching a coyote that was perhaps 150 yards away and walking up a hill.\u00a0 The coyote seemed to be uninterested in the pronghorn and was walking mostly away from them.\u00a0 Two of these four fawns are looking to our left\u00a0toward the buck and the coyote.<\/p>\n
Suddenly the pronghorn buck began some very strange behavior.\u00a0 It put its nose to the ground and turned frantically in semi-circles for perhaps 15 seconds\u00a0as it made some sounds that are difficult to describe.\u00a0 My images of the behavior were unremarkable because they looked like he was simply grazing and he was mostly facing away from me so I deleted them.\u00a0\u00a0 I don’t know that the behavior was directed\u00a0 toward the coyote but\u00a0I suspect that it was.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/2000, f\/9, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM +1.4 tc<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But luckily I had my lens trained on\u00a0the buck\u00a0when he suddenly and without warning accelerated toward the doe and four fawns.\u00a0 When he got fairly close to the other pronghorn he stopped and resumed “normal” behavior.\u00a0 The coyote disappeared over the top of the hill without further incident.<\/p>\n In this image I like his dynamic running posture and the fact that I got light in the eye which I find difficult to do with pronghorn (as evidenced by the first shot of the fawns).<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in the western hemisphere and I was glad I had my lens on this handsome buck when it suddenly began to accelerate.<\/p>\n