{"id":3277,"date":"2011-10-08T19:24:11","date_gmt":"2011-10-09T01:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=3277"},"modified":"2026-02-28T17:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:21:25","slug":"a-buck-pronghorn-with-oddly-misshapened-horns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/10\/08\/a-buck-pronghorn-with-oddly-misshapened-horns\/","title":{"rendered":"Buck Pronghorn with Oddly Misshapened Horns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ProfilePortrait of a Pronghorn buck with oddly misshapen horns –\u00a0Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

On September 24, 2010 I saw this Pronghorn buck for the first time. He was a good distance from me, up on a hill\u00a0in bad light\u00a0with grasses in front of him that covered most of his body.<\/p>\n

I took some images despite those conditions because I wanted to take a closer look at his horns, I could tell even from a distance that there was something odd about their shape.<\/p>\n

Later at home I blew up the\u00a0photographs I\u00a0had taken\u00a0and could see more clearly how this buck’s horns were deformed. At the time I hoped to be able to photograph him again.<\/p>\n

This October 3rd\u00a0I spotted this pronghorn for the third or fourth time in this past year only this time I had good light, the buck wasn’t far away and because it is rut season he was only paying attention to the does and other bucks in the area.<\/p>\n

I remember that last year I wondered if his bent and misshapen horns created any issues\u00a0that would prevent him from\u00a0successfully breeding.<\/p>\n

\"Atypical<\/p>\n

Pronghorn buck with bent and misshapen horns –\u00a0Nikon D300, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 205mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t actually know if this Pronghorn has any problems mating; and I suspect that he does not, but I do know that he was fully in rut, that he wasn’t having any problems at all chasing away the competing bucks, and that he could have cared less that I was there photographing him.<\/p>\n

When I first started taking images he was behind some of the wild sunflowers that seem to be especially abundant this year on the island and I could get a clear shot of him, I was at 400mmwith my 1.4x TC attached and he filled the frame quite nicely until he quickly started to move in my direction.<\/p>\n

Finally when he was in the clear I could not fit him in the frame at all, I had been zooming back while he made his approach until I couldn’t zoom back any further.<\/p>\n

I had my D200 with the 18-200mm VR lens in my backpack but there just wasn’t any time to pull it out and get my settings where they needed to be and there wasn’t even a spare 15 seconds to take the teleconverter off of the D300 with the 200-400mm VR attached so I just went for head shots of the handsome fellow.<\/p>\n

The top image is 83% of the original image, top to bottom there was no room for cropping so I cropped some from the left side to try to balance the composition. The bottom image is 75% of the original and I cropped some to\u00a0bring the bottom\u00a0plus cropping from both sides for composition.<\/p>\n

If the Pronghorn had been any closer I would have missed the shots entirely!<\/p>\n

When the buck was far enough away from me to get full body images it always seemed that the sunflowers were obscuring the Pronghorn<\/span><\/a> so I guess I’ll need to keep looking for him to get\u00a0some of the full body shots I desire.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Older images of this same Pronghorn buck<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This October 3rd I spotted this pronghorn for the third or fourth time in this past year only this time I had good light, the buck wasn’t far away and because it is rut season he was only paying attention to the does and other bucks in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,183,26],"tags":[4096,532,1005,4142,1021,4143,519,4035,4046,185,4020,4249,1008,1004,1006,30,102,4032],"class_list":["post-3277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-pronghorn","category-utah","tag-antilocapra-americana","tag-atypical","tag-bent","tag-close-up","tag-deformed","tag-head-shot","tag-nature","tag-nature-photography","tag-portrait","tag-pronghorn","tag-pronghorn-antelope","tag-rut","tag-strange","tag-unique","tag-unusual","tag-utah-2","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-photography"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pronghorn-buck-bent-horn-mia-mcpherson-2467.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-QR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":101005,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/03\/24\/spring-pronghorn-buck-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":3277,"position":0},"title":"Spring 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Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Misshapen Horns \u2013 Pronghorn, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pronghorn-utah-misshapen-mia-mcpherson-1324.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pronghorn-utah-misshapen-mia-mcpherson-1324.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pronghorn-utah-misshapen-mia-mcpherson-1324.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/pronghorn-utah-misshapen-mia-mcpherson-1324.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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McPherson","date":"December 10, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Pronghorns' unique horns shed the sheath yearly, making their horn sheath growth an interesting subject as they are the only ungulate with this characteristic.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pronghorn buck during horn sheath growth, Antelope Island State Park in Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pronghorn-buck-mia-mcpherson-5654.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pronghorn-buck-mia-mcpherson-5654.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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