When one thinks of migration, the caribou of northern Canada come to mind. One easily pictures 1000's and 1000's of barren ground caribou migrating to calving grounds in the Arctic. One rarely thinks of pronghorn antelope and migration, but we have documented this behaviour in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana. By applying GPS collar technology that is able to track the location of pronghorn antelope every four hours we have documented significant movements of pronghorn, one of which may be the longest migration of a land mammal, second only to barren ground caribou. One female, P3, moved a one-way distance of 445 km. She began her journey south of Manyberries, Alberta, and traveled north through CFB Suffield, eventually reaching west central Saskatchewan, just east of Macklin (Figure 1A). This one-way movement is likely the largest recorded distance for pronghorn antelope in North America. She then return to Alberta to fawn, traveled back to Saskatchewan to her summer range, before finally returning in the fall to winter on CFB Suffield (Figure 1A). Other females were recorded moving from southeastern Alberta north to CFB Suffield, while others have been documented moving from winter ranges on CFB Suffield to fawning areas in Saskatchewan. Others left the base and moved northwest into the Hanna and Drumheller area (Figure 1A). These movements are typically in the 150-200km range one-way. We are also documenting pronghorn that have small annual home ranges and do not migrate annually but remain in the same area year round (Figure 1B). These pronghorn may have already had their migration corridors blocked by a number of factors. Understanding landscape patterns and the cumulative effect of the location of roads, fences, industrial activity, and natural features (e.g. rivers, lakes) that facilitate or impede pronghorn migration as well as trying to understand the potential impacts of future land use changes is critical to ensuring that pronghorn migration will be conserved. This is the focus of research being conducted by Mike Suitor at the University of Calgary.

Figure 1: Migratory (A) and non-migratory (B) behavior exhibited by pronghorn antelope collared in Alberta. Note the long distance moved by pronghorn P3 (pink line) of 445 km in 3.5 weeks from southern Alberta to east of Macklin, Saskatchewan.