“We fly a one-mile-wide strip transect across virtually all primary pronghorn range,” Stillings offered. “The reason we fly in early July is to make sure we count the fawns -- they are out of the hiding mode by that time of year. The airplane flies down the half-mile line, and we count and classify all pronghorns spotted in the half-mile zone left or right of the plane. Last year we put out six planes in a 10-day stretch to get the job done.”

Bowman County is by far the top county for pronghorns in the state, followed by Slope, Golden, Billings and McKenzie counties. When you get east of those counties, Stillings pointed out, the pronghorn population has also increased dramatically in this secondary range as well. Private land makes up the overwhelming majority of the habitat here, but within the Little Missouri National Grasslands in McKenzie County lie sizeable tracts of huntable public land.

North Dakota allows no non-resident firearm hunting, but out-of-state bowhunters are generously accommodated. Archery season opens in early September and runs through early October; firearm season opens in late September and extends to mid-October. (Stillings has a reminder for firearm hunters: The average wait for a license is from five to seven years.) Archery licenses are unlimited and can be purchased over the counter at licensing agents throughout the pronghorn’s range. Non-resident archery licenses cost $200; the resident license is $20, and resident youth (under 16) can get a license for $10. The licensee is allowed to take a pronghorn of either sex.

Non-residents and residents alike also need habitat and general hunting licenses. License applications are available in mid-July; the submission deadline is in early August.

The approximately 1,420 bowhunters hosted by North Dakota in 2005 rang up enough kills for a 16 percent success rate. In the vicinity of 2,390 North Dakota firearm any-pronghorn licenses were issued; those hunters achieved an 85 percent success rate. Another 3,325 doe/fawn tags were issued; the success rate for holders of those was 81 percent.

SOUTH DAKOTA
The pronghorn news couldn’t be much better than it is right now, and if you’ve ever had a hankering to hunt these antelope in the Rushmore State, 2006 will surely be the year to give it a try. Here as in North Dakota, a series of mild winters has allowed the pronghorn population to breeze through to annual increases.

Wintering herds were treated to record-high temperatures in January, and winter mortality was virtually zero. And South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks biologists expect another bump in the population for 2006.

“Our population going into the 2005 hunting season was pushing 60,000 animals,” stated Ted Benzon, a senior big-game biologist who’s been with the SDDGFP for 25 years, “and frankly, that’s more antelope than we’d like to see. We’d like to have our overall population closer to 45,000 antelope for the entire range.”

While the notion of having lots of animals around to boost success rates to 70 percent or beyond is attractive, the inevitable bad winter will force the pronghorns to migrate to better habitat -- and along the way, they’ll encounter fences. Unless they find a way through, over or under, they push themselves into corners, and there succumb to the elements.