Monitoring Key Vital Rates of Yellowstone Pronghorn

Low abundance and reductions in the quantity and quality of winter range have increased the susceptibility of the Yellowstone pronghorn population to random, naturally occurring catastrophes such as severe winter weather, droughts, or disease epidemics. Since 1999, the Yellowstone Center for Resources has been carrying out a program to monitor 

1. annual estimates of recruitment
2. annual estimates of population size and associated variance
3. assessments of the seasonal distribution and migratory behavior of pronghorn

This monitoring enables us to evaluate the relative effects of disease, harvests, land use, predation, and environmental factors (e.g., drought, snow pack) on pronghorn demographics and population trends, and deter  impacts that may harm the integrity of the pronghorn population.