Nemont
Well-known member
May 20, 2004
Montana Outdoors: Antelope's migratory instincts stumped by Fort Peck
Mark Henckel
MONTANA OUTDOORS
JORDAN - Antelope are longing to go home. Most will never get there. It's both a truly sad sight today and a living legacy of times gone by.
It all started when brutally tough winter swept across Montana's Hi-line and the southern reaches of Canada's prairie provinces.
Deep snows fell and winds howled piling up drifts that covered the food sources and winter habitat for pronghorn antelope. Likely driven by old instincts, the antelope began drifting south in search of places where they could survive.
Many of those antelope crossed the ice of Fort Peck Reservoir during the winter. Drifts buried fences and allowed antelope to cross them and continue southward.
Then spring came. The snow melted. Antelope began feeling their old instincts kick in and they began wandering northward toward home.
Unfortunately, those instincts were developed long before man began changing the pronghorn's landscape. They were certainly developed before the sprawling, 134-mile-long Fort Peck Reservoir was impounded on the Missouri River.
Now, more than 1,000 of those antelope trying to go home are stuck on the south shore of Fort Peck, wandering back and forth on the dirt and gravel beaches. They walk each point out to the end and look northward. Then they wander down the shoreline to the next point and do the same.
They want to go home. But the lake is making it impossible for them to get there.
"I flew the south shore last week," said Bernie Hildebrand, wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks at Miles City. "I actually counted 1,005 from some in the Big Dry Arm all the way to a little west of Devils Creek. The vast majority are between Bell Point and four or five miles west of Devils Creek."
Hildbrand had seen these antelope from the water a month ago. At that time, they were in big bunches upwards of 200 or more. Now they're generally in groups of 20 or less, including some single antelope that are likely does getting ready to drop fawns, though he doesn't feel that many fawns will be dropped this year.
"They should be breaking off and going fawning. But after a tough winter like this one, I expect some of the does have lost their fawns. That's why there probably aren't more of them breaking off from the herds," he said.
Although antelope can swim, they are reluctant to cross a body of water as wide as Fort Peck.
Mike Hertzog, of Bozeman, witnessed a group of antelope that just kept trying while he was fishing in a relatively narrow portion of the lake - in fact, it's called the Narrows - west of Devils Creek.
"It was really sad," Hertzog said. "They'd stand there on the bank and finally one of them would get out into the water and others would try to follow. They'd swim out about 100 yards and then turn around and go back.
"A lead doe would try again and maybe make it 150 yards and look back and see others returning to the shore, so she'd turn back," Hertzog said. "They did that over and over, all day long. And when they got back to shore, they just stood there like they were lost and didn't know what to do."
Hildebrand said that he had witnessed some antelope doing the same thing and having the same results.
"They'll stand out in the water and walk out until it hits their belly," Hildebrand said. "I've seen them swim out about 100 yards and then back. If you ever see them in the water, it's strange. Their hollow hair makes them float high. With that advantage, you'd think they'd blow across, but they're not going to do it."
Further west from where the Missouri River flows into Fort Peck, other antelope have been having more success in returning home.
Randy Matchett, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, reported that another FWP biologist, Scott Jackson, had seen them crossing the river. And biologists had seen antelope on the north side which had obviously crossed the river and its associated mud flats because they were caked with mud.
"When I say mud, they were caked with gumbo clear over the tops of their backs with only their heads and upper necks showing antelope hair," Matchett wrote.
During Hildebrand's flight, he saw the tracks in the mud along the river indicating that quite a few antelope had crossed above the lake on their migration.
Other antelope trying to migrate northward haven't even made it as far as the ones on the lake shore or the ones which crossed the river.
"On the ground surveys I've been doing this spring, I've seen a lot of antelope that are stacked up along fences that they can't cross," Hildebrand said. "Antelope generally don't go over fences, but during the winter, they walked over the top on snow and now the snow is gone and they can't get back north.
"There are a lot of old-time sheep-tight fences in that country. There aren't all that many sheep anymore. But the fences are still there," he said.
What is going to be the fate of these antelope, especially the ones on the shoreline of Fort Peck?
"They have two options," Hildebrand said. "They don't like the rough country and the trees that make up much of the Missouri Breaks. If they hit the right places, they can go out of the Breaks and onto the lands above. If they do filter their way out of the Breaks and find habitat more to their liking, they'll eventually make their homes there. Or, they'll stay where they're at in poor habitat on the lake shore and they won't produce enough fawns to maintain the population. In three or four years, there won't be any antelope on the lake shore left."
In the meantime, there are a lot of very-forlorn-looking antelope on the south shore of Fort Peck, gazing northward and trying to get home.
"Who knows how far they would need to go to get there," Hildebrand said. "They could be anywhere from just north of the lake, to the Hi-line, to a couple of hundred miles further north. They could possibly be Canadian antelope. Only one thing is sure. Many of them are not going to make it."
Montana Outdoors: Antelope's migratory instincts stumped by Fort Peck
Mark Henckel
MONTANA OUTDOORS
JORDAN - Antelope are longing to go home. Most will never get there. It's both a truly sad sight today and a living legacy of times gone by.
It all started when brutally tough winter swept across Montana's Hi-line and the southern reaches of Canada's prairie provinces.
Deep snows fell and winds howled piling up drifts that covered the food sources and winter habitat for pronghorn antelope. Likely driven by old instincts, the antelope began drifting south in search of places where they could survive.
Many of those antelope crossed the ice of Fort Peck Reservoir during the winter. Drifts buried fences and allowed antelope to cross them and continue southward.
Then spring came. The snow melted. Antelope began feeling their old instincts kick in and they began wandering northward toward home.
Unfortunately, those instincts were developed long before man began changing the pronghorn's landscape. They were certainly developed before the sprawling, 134-mile-long Fort Peck Reservoir was impounded on the Missouri River.
Now, more than 1,000 of those antelope trying to go home are stuck on the south shore of Fort Peck, wandering back and forth on the dirt and gravel beaches. They walk each point out to the end and look northward. Then they wander down the shoreline to the next point and do the same.
They want to go home. But the lake is making it impossible for them to get there.
"I flew the south shore last week," said Bernie Hildebrand, wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks at Miles City. "I actually counted 1,005 from some in the Big Dry Arm all the way to a little west of Devils Creek. The vast majority are between Bell Point and four or five miles west of Devils Creek."
Hildbrand had seen these antelope from the water a month ago. At that time, they were in big bunches upwards of 200 or more. Now they're generally in groups of 20 or less, including some single antelope that are likely does getting ready to drop fawns, though he doesn't feel that many fawns will be dropped this year.
"They should be breaking off and going fawning. But after a tough winter like this one, I expect some of the does have lost their fawns. That's why there probably aren't more of them breaking off from the herds," he said.
Although antelope can swim, they are reluctant to cross a body of water as wide as Fort Peck.
Mike Hertzog, of Bozeman, witnessed a group of antelope that just kept trying while he was fishing in a relatively narrow portion of the lake - in fact, it's called the Narrows - west of Devils Creek.
"It was really sad," Hertzog said. "They'd stand there on the bank and finally one of them would get out into the water and others would try to follow. They'd swim out about 100 yards and then turn around and go back.
"A lead doe would try again and maybe make it 150 yards and look back and see others returning to the shore, so she'd turn back," Hertzog said. "They did that over and over, all day long. And when they got back to shore, they just stood there like they were lost and didn't know what to do."
Hildebrand said that he had witnessed some antelope doing the same thing and having the same results.
"They'll stand out in the water and walk out until it hits their belly," Hildebrand said. "I've seen them swim out about 100 yards and then back. If you ever see them in the water, it's strange. Their hollow hair makes them float high. With that advantage, you'd think they'd blow across, but they're not going to do it."
Further west from where the Missouri River flows into Fort Peck, other antelope have been having more success in returning home.
Randy Matchett, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, reported that another FWP biologist, Scott Jackson, had seen them crossing the river. And biologists had seen antelope on the north side which had obviously crossed the river and its associated mud flats because they were caked with mud.
"When I say mud, they were caked with gumbo clear over the tops of their backs with only their heads and upper necks showing antelope hair," Matchett wrote.
During Hildebrand's flight, he saw the tracks in the mud along the river indicating that quite a few antelope had crossed above the lake on their migration.
Other antelope trying to migrate northward haven't even made it as far as the ones on the lake shore or the ones which crossed the river.
"On the ground surveys I've been doing this spring, I've seen a lot of antelope that are stacked up along fences that they can't cross," Hildebrand said. "Antelope generally don't go over fences, but during the winter, they walked over the top on snow and now the snow is gone and they can't get back north.
"There are a lot of old-time sheep-tight fences in that country. There aren't all that many sheep anymore. But the fences are still there," he said.
What is going to be the fate of these antelope, especially the ones on the shoreline of Fort Peck?
"They have two options," Hildebrand said. "They don't like the rough country and the trees that make up much of the Missouri Breaks. If they hit the right places, they can go out of the Breaks and onto the lands above. If they do filter their way out of the Breaks and find habitat more to their liking, they'll eventually make their homes there. Or, they'll stay where they're at in poor habitat on the lake shore and they won't produce enough fawns to maintain the population. In three or four years, there won't be any antelope on the lake shore left."
In the meantime, there are a lot of very-forlorn-looking antelope on the south shore of Fort Peck, gazing northward and trying to get home.
"Who knows how far they would need to go to get there," Hildebrand said. "They could be anywhere from just north of the lake, to the Hi-line, to a couple of hundred miles further north. They could possibly be Canadian antelope. Only one thing is sure. Many of them are not going to make it."
