“Heartbreaking!” “Sad.” “Horrible!” Those are just a few of scores of online comments after Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) posted a video showing where 53 pronghorn antelope died along one stretch of highway in eastern Colorado.
It happened along US Route 36 east of Byers, a small community about 45 miles east of Denver. Up to 20 inches of snow fell from an early storm that left berms of hard, crusty snow on roadside fields.
Another CPW post and video said more than 100 pronghorn died across the region and urged drivers to be more attentive. According to the post, “Pronghorn can’t move quickly on icy roads to escape oncoming traffic. And because pronghorn prefer to go under fences rather than jump over, many are trapped on the roads because snow is two feet deep and there isn’t room for them to crawl under the bottom wires.”
CPW also posted pronghorns do not respond to baiting to lure them away from roads and requested landowners consider plowing a part of their land to give the animals refuge away from roads.
(Photo credit: Colorado Parks and Wildlife)