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Antelope moved near Flag to build herd
By CYNDY COLE
Daily Sun Staff
©2007 Arizona Daily Sun
February 9, 2007
Arizona Game and Fish rounded up 66 antelope from a ranch near Prescott and dropped them off southeast of Meteor Crater on Wednesday in an attempt to build up a herd there that's been struggling over the last 20 years due to drought, changes in vegetation and predation.
The antelope were chased by helicopter towards a funnel-like setup of corrals, netting and 8-foot-high fences where they were blindfolded, sedated and inoculated.
It was a wild time trying to blindfold each of the antelope, Game and Fish wildlife specialist Tim Holt said.
"It turns into a small rodeo, basically," with men jumping after the 60-to 100-pound animals, blindfolds in hand.
Eight of the antelope were given tracking collars before the herd was released near Meteor Crater later the same day.
They recognized each other quickly, then ran away, Holt said. One did not survive the move.
The pronghorn antelope that live on Anderson Mesa have been dubbed a sensitive species.
They run at speeds of up to 60 mph and migrate up to 75 miles on and off of Anderson Mesa, depending on the season.
Improvements or fires have treated 57,000 acres on the mesa where the pinions and junipers are cutting into what used to be pronghorn habitat. Another 500 miles of livestock fencing was surveyed, with some sections being modified to allow pronghorn to travel on and off the mesa more easily.
Pronghorn will rarely jump over fences, but will go under if the bottom wire is high enough from the ground.
Game and Fish conducted gunning by helicopter a few years ago to reduce the number of coyotes preying on antelope fawns.
The population on Anderson Mesa has swung from highs of an estimated 1,500 in the 1980s to lows of 400 a few years ago and is projected to be around 500 or 600 now.
"We're showing some increase, thankfully," Holt said.
It is hoped the new antelope might add genetic diversity to the existing herd. Wildlife watchers will know later when they examine whether the new herd -- all of which have ear tags -- mixes with the untagged natives.
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