Great Migration Of 20,000 Pronghorn Hold Up Traffic Running Across Snowy Wyoming Road

Nothing like a pronghorn traffic jam.

The silver lining is that this kind of traffic beats your typical gridlock any day of the week. I’d comfortably bet that you’ve never stopped in standstill traffic to admire the hundreds of cars in front of you, right? But you’d likely be happy – or at least happier – to put the car in park to watch thousands of pronghorn cross the road.

Animal-induced traffic is more common than you think. If you don’t believe me, you are welcome to check into this traffic jam that was caused by bison, or feel free to watch this video of a parade of elk running across a Montana highway. When you live out in the nature, you’re obviously more likely to cross paths with it. Or in this case, have your path stopped.

This couple was driving near the Wyoming-Colorado border when it looked like a moving roadblock was forming up ahead. They slowly brought their vehicle to a stand still, not because they wanted to, but because they didn’t really have any other choice. The never-ending pronghorn herd was now in control of traffic patterns on this Wyoming highway. Fun fact: Wyoming has the largest population of pronghorn in North America, with an estimated total of around 320,000.

Pronghorn are often confused with and called antelope, but they’re actually a species of artiodactyl mammals that are admittedly similar to antelope, but not in the same family. They also hold the title of “fastest land mammal in North America,” reaching top speeds of up to 61 miles per hour. Pair their incredible speed with the fact that pronghorn have exceptional eyesight – allowing them to see movement from miles away – and it’s rather understandable why they give predators fits.

And when it comes to pronghorn herds, they can come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and it’s not out of the norm to see a group of 1,000 or so. However, this video blows the typical numbers out of the water. As the person who took the video explained, this great migration included upwards of 20,000 pronghorns all running together:

“Driving home from Cody, Wyoming with my boyfriend, came across this great migration on New Year’s Day. The exact location is State HWY 230 south of Encampment, Wyoming near the Colorado border. At least 20,000 antelope crossing the state highway.”

It’s truly breathtaking to see this many pronghorn at once. The video shows the massive herd somewhat funneling together at a fence, then slowly but surely figuring out that they have to jump it in order to keep things moving. Though pronghorn are prolific jumpers, they tend to prefer to climb underneath obstacles if they can. You can see some of the animals jumping while others attempting to crawl to move past the fencing.

The rare situation where the pronghorn proved that you can go over it, through it, and under it.

While the herd figured out the fence and kept things moving across the Wyoming highway, the couple sat back and took in the beautiful, snow-covered landscape that the thousands of pronghorns were traversing across. Nature in motion can be poetry in motion, and that’s proven true in this unbelievable video out of Wyoming.

Check it out:

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