Jungle Jim
Guest
Friday 18 March 22.........
Whilst doing some heavy duty creeping style off-roading minus any visable record of previous roads or trails thru deep sand with thousands upon thousands of long deserted Giant Kangaroo Rat colonies, we stopped to pick up the bleached white skull of a jackrabbit. First step out of the Jeep was a mistake as the sands were covered with thousands of the needle sharp seeds pods of the invasive and foreign burr grass. As I was pulling the spines from my flip flops and toes I kept getting a sort of white flashing kinda like someone using a small mirror or even a rifle scope to get my attention.
I scanned the horizon to my right and spotted the brilliant white rear end of an animal slowly moving away yet stopping every so often behind a Creosote Bush to watch us. We got out the glasses and saw what at first I thought could only be a White Tailed Deer. Then thinking this barren "waste land" couldn't possibly support a deer of any kind. It had huge ears, no horns and stood only about four feet tall. After a few seconds it turned tail and flashed that rump again and this time was followed by a smaller animal of the same sort. They were Sonoran Pronghorns! The little kid was not much bigger than the Antelope Jack Rabbit found further south.
The doe kept the little kid close behind yet they never ran off and out of sight. After watching this unbelievable sight we started up and within a few minutes flushed out another doe with her kid close behind. They had the same behavior as the first ones, just walking a few feet then stopping behind a Creosote Bush and just staring at us.
The next mile or so we spotted eight more adults, one of them a single doe that obviously had a kid hidden away somewhere close by and a group of three then another group of four. None of them ever panicked and dashed off, they were clearly as interested in us as we were with them. None of them had horns so identifying them by sex was not possible other than the does with kids. This area could be called a "kidding ground" as the does choose the most barren part of their range in order to keep potential predators in view
All of this was within plain view of the Mayan Palace and the deep blue of the Sea of Cortez.
JJ
Whilst doing some heavy duty creeping style off-roading minus any visable record of previous roads or trails thru deep sand with thousands upon thousands of long deserted Giant Kangaroo Rat colonies, we stopped to pick up the bleached white skull of a jackrabbit. First step out of the Jeep was a mistake as the sands were covered with thousands of the needle sharp seeds pods of the invasive and foreign burr grass. As I was pulling the spines from my flip flops and toes I kept getting a sort of white flashing kinda like someone using a small mirror or even a rifle scope to get my attention.
I scanned the horizon to my right and spotted the brilliant white rear end of an animal slowly moving away yet stopping every so often behind a Creosote Bush to watch us. We got out the glasses and saw what at first I thought could only be a White Tailed Deer. Then thinking this barren "waste land" couldn't possibly support a deer of any kind. It had huge ears, no horns and stood only about four feet tall. After a few seconds it turned tail and flashed that rump again and this time was followed by a smaller animal of the same sort. They were Sonoran Pronghorns! The little kid was not much bigger than the Antelope Jack Rabbit found further south.
The doe kept the little kid close behind yet they never ran off and out of sight. After watching this unbelievable sight we started up and within a few minutes flushed out another doe with her kid close behind. They had the same behavior as the first ones, just walking a few feet then stopping behind a Creosote Bush and just staring at us.
The next mile or so we spotted eight more adults, one of them a single doe that obviously had a kid hidden away somewhere close by and a group of three then another group of four. None of them ever panicked and dashed off, they were clearly as interested in us as we were with them. None of them had horns so identifying them by sex was not possible other than the does with kids. This area could be called a "kidding ground" as the does choose the most barren part of their range in order to keep potential predators in view
All of this was within plain view of the Mayan Palace and the deep blue of the Sea of Cortez.
JJ