Frontal view of an odd Pronghorn buck
Yesterday while looking for birds to photograph out on Antelope Island State Park I photographed this Pronghorn and through my viewfinder I could see two horny growths on its muzzle and wasn’t sure what they were, then I discovered that they might be extra horn growths. In this frame the Pronghorn buck looks fairly normal as it chews on some food, but looking closely there are two very dark spots on the ridge of its muzzle.
Side view of an odd Pronghorn buck showing two extra horns on its muzzle
This image shows a side view of the Pronghorn buck’s face with the two unusual horn growths shown protruding from its muzzle. I did some research on line after I arrived home and found two articles of interest.
The first is from the San Diego Zoo:
Occasional specimens have extra horns or teats, females may or may not have horns, and some females have a different type of uterus than others (O’Gara, 1968).
The second is from a taxidermy forum:
4 horned pronghorn
This response submitted by mike d on 1/8/06 at 7:47 PM. ( the_taxidermistatyahoo.com ) 68.116.65.86
Not as uncommon as you might think!
I do about 30 to 35 goats a year and probably 1/3
of them have extra “horns”.
There is a bone knob right behind the horn that they grow over.
Pronghorn can have extra “horns” most anywhere on their heads;
I have mounted a bunch with these 1″ nubs behind the ears.
They usually are not any longer than the hair around them, so are not visible until you start looking the head over after the animal is down.
The oddest one I ever did had a 1 1/2″ horn on the bridge of the nose, like a rhino!
Close up image of a Pronghorn buck showing the extra horns on its muzzle
I’ve seen Pronghorn with deformed horns, but never anything as unique as this. I didn’t know until yesterday that Pronghorn can grow extra horny growths and although these are small they appear to be made of the same keratinous material as this buck’s regular horn sheath.
You just never know what oddities you might see while wandering around photographing nature.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Pronghorn photos plus facts and information about this species.
Very cool!!!!
Mia, just amazing! So glad you were paying attention!
“You just never know what oddities you might see while wandering around photographing nature.”
and it is surprising how often you still don’t see them until you look at your photos later.
Dave
What beautiful animals these are; I just love their horns; even when they have the extra set.
it was trying to be a unicorn…and overshot it a little
This is very cool Mia, thanks for the information , and pic!
Brilliant Mia, the Pronghorn is superb even when they have two horns.
How interesting! I guess other animals that grow horns might also have this happen.