The Trouble With Harems (and for buck pronghorns it’s a big one)

A big change of pace for Feathered Photography today – no feathers.

Occasionally I rerun an older post that few if any current blog readers have seen. This one was one of my very early blog posts, published on September 21, 2011. For this version I’ve edited the text, cleaned up the formatting and tweaked the image processing.

There’ll be no birds today. Instead I’ll focus on a mature buck pronghorn and his tireless efforts to keep his unruly harem of does under his control and away from two competing bucks. Believe me, it was no easy task. And I’ll close with some photos that illustrate why the Flaming Gorge area is among my favorite places to camp. And it isn’t even in Montana!

 

Mia and I spent most of this week on a camping/photography trip to Flaming Gorge, Utah and I had some spectacular photographic opportunities with pronghorns. We camped on a beautiful, isolated and narrow peninsula protruding into the lake and it happened that a buck pronghorn was using the restrictive topography of the peninsula to help him keep control of his very large harem of does. The herd consisted of the lone buck and roughly 28 females including a few younger animals. The buck was in full rut and frantic to keep his ladies together as he tried to prevent several other extremely persistent bucks on the periphery of the band from running off with them one by one.

Does have a variety of mating strategies. Some does, called “sampling females,” will visit several bucks during the breeding season if allowed to do so. Others, referred to as “inciting females,” behave as sampling females until they come into estrus when they move off from the males which incites fights and aggressive competition between the competing bucks. These females always immediately mate with the winning male. Some females employ a third strategy where they join a single male and remain with him throughout estrus – these does are called “quiet females.”

 

1/800, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

This poor buck was trying to control at least 28 does with varying mating strategies in his harem and he really struggled to accomplish it. One evening we were at the bottom of a string of small hills just as the sun was setting (which explains the extremely warm light in these photos). The buck and his harem were strung out on the crest of several of the hills and one of the does was giving him a hard time by trying to escape the herd and join one of two other bucks that were almost constantly hanging around the periphery of the harem.

I saw the female bolt but so did the buck and he reacted instantly. Here he has just crested the hill into the warm light from the setting sun and is accelerating toward her in an effort to head her off. I really like this shot because it looks like he has just exploded onto the scene and into the light, which he had.

 

 

1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

Five frames later (firing at full burst rate of my 7D) he has now gained amazing speed – pronghorns are second only to the cheetah as the fastest land animals on earth. In this shot I was tickled to get all four feet off the ground. I think having blue sky between his feet and the ground is unusual and pretty neat.

 

 

1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

Three frames later I caught this interesting foot/leg position. The doe was still some distance ahead of him but he was quickly gaining on her as she ran toward the buck on the periphery of the herd.

 

 

1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

In this photo the escaping female is just below the buck and lower on the hill but out of the frame. He’s attempting to get slightly ahead of her and then turn in front of her and force her back to the herd and away from the other waiting buck – a maneuver I witnessed multiple times with this buck over several days.

 

 

1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

Sadly I lost sharp focus on the only shot that includes at least part of the doe as he began to turn in front of her but I include it here so you can actually see the doe he’s trying to control. Here she has apparently conceded defeat as she begins to slow down a little and he’s starting to put the brakes on himself.

 

 

1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 640, Canon 7D, EF 500mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4 tc

A few seconds later the doe had returned to the herd and the buck was standing at the top of the hill as he surveyed his domain and his harem, both of which were safe for the moment.

This male had a very hard time of it while we were there. He rarely ate or even rested. Most of his time was spent keeping wayward females from escaping, marking territory or running off the other two bucks, which he did many times. Occasionally he would snatch a bite or two as he patrolled his harem but he certainly couldn’t browse contentedly like the rest of his band did most of the time.

 

 

One of several mistakes I made with the pronghorns was not taking some photos of the entire large herd from a distance. In my efforts to approach them and watch their behaviors I just didn’t think of it. Next time I’ll know better. But this image does show the buck keeping a watchful eye on a small portion of his harem on the top of one of the adjoining hills.

 

 

The area where I photographed these pronghorn behaviors can be seen in this photo. The peninsula we were on is the narrow spit of land in the middle between the two arms of the lake. The peninsula ends near the middle of one small part of the huge lake out of frame to the left. The hills that the pronghorn were on in the previous photos are those on the left half of the peninsula that show some shade on one side. I was photographing from my pickup on a dirt-track “road” just below them.

My camping trailer is the small white speck marked by the red arrow in the middle of the photo. As you can imagine, our campsite was spectacular, isolated, right on the water and we had a grand view as you’ll see in my last photo below.

 

 

This was our view from the picture window of my trailer. It was eye-suckingly gorgeous and we had the entire peninsula mostly to ourselves for the entire time we were there. I rarely even saw any boats on the water. In the spring and early summer I’ve photographed nesting Osprey nearby and one of the few pairs of nesting Bald Eagles in all of Utah raises their family just out of frame to the left. Loons often swim near the shore below our camp site and Golden Eagles and coyotes patrol the area.

It goes without saying that we were in our element on that trip and we’ve made it several times before and since. It’s one of the destinations I had in mind when I bought a new camping trailer a few weeks ago.

It’s going to be a long winter…

Ron

 

 

27 Comments

  1. Marvelous series Ron!

    Charlotte

  2. I hope you can make it back there in your new trailer. It looks like the place to really get away from it all.
    Never seen pronghorns. Thanks for the introduction.

  3. WHAT an amazing series. That poor buck. At the end of the season they must be totally exhausted. And I suspect thin. I wonder whether the lack of rest/food means that by the end of the season they are more likely to lose a doe or two?
    And I loved the warm light, the photo of the buck’s feet in the air and the environment.
    Awe and wonder.
    And gratitude.

  4. I’d say she has him by the short horns…but that might be inappropriate. 😀

  5. Oh man, what a gorgeous site, envy, envy!
    That buck looks all Alpha, in great condition and ready with the staying power they MUST have. Wonderful set of images, great story with the pictures.
    Fills me with regrets I have never seen your part of the country.

  6. What a beautiful place! Definitely a spot to pencil in on the “To Visit” list! Those pronghorn photos are awesome. Thanks again for sharing.

  7. Love the golden light. There’s an app that tells when golden light and blue light will appear and how long each will last – very convenient. These shots roll right along – last image you even captured the black mane on the buck’s neck. The one in which he’s got four off the floor is pretty great, IMHO. I always study your metadata-I learn a lot. Thank you.

  8. Thanks for providing great content from the past even when there’s the frustration of not being able to go out and “shoot” something right now. John

    • No shooting for me, especially this morning, John. It’s snowing now and it’s supposed to continue for much of the day. We just need more light. Thank you.

  9. Kent Patrick-RIley

    The buck may not have feathers, but your photos captured him flying! Amazing.

  10. This is another good blog. Those antelope as I know them, are hard to catch up close to get pictures. They are all around where I live, I never really get a chance to watch them. A note to Judy keep the wind up in your area. lol

  11. I love that part of the lake. We’ve spent countless hours in that area fishing for Smallmouth bass and exploring all the little slot canyons. We used to camp north and on the other side of the lake in Wyoming when we boated there.

    • Neil, I’ve only fished the lake once and that was ice fishing years ago. There were five of us – one slipped when jumping to the ice from the shore (it was early spring) and fell in that way and another one fell in his own fishing hole. Cold times, and wet ones for those two.

  12. Beautiful photography Ron. Gorgeous coloring, great photos, an education on pronghorn behavior, and what an outstanding location for nature photography. That buck is The Man around those parts.
    Everett Sanborn, Prescott AZ

  13. WOW! Ron beautiful creatures and absolutely gorgeous surroundings! 🙂 🙂 🙂 The warm light REALLY accentuated them and being able to capture the buck with all 4 off the ground amazing! 🙂 Antelope are one thing I slow WAY down for when they are near the road – TOTALLY unpredictable in their actions! May be a long winter but these photos certainly help! 😉 We’re doing the high wind thing………:(

    • I agree, Judy – you just never know what a pronghorn is going to do in front of you but whatever it is it’s likely to be quick. Drivers need their wits about them.

      Ahh, the Montana wind. I can almost hear it…

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