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...widespread replacement coastal sage scrub vegetation southern California by annual grasslands more favorable to pronghorn. We have searched the scientific and popular literature, as well as museum collections, to locate pronghorn antelope occurrences from below San Francisco Bay southward through the Baja California peninsula. Our results show that pronghorn were widely distributed, and often abundant, on nearly all of the plains and valleys on both sides of the Coastal and Peninsular ranges to at least as far south as the Magdalena Plain.
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Although the U.S. Geological Survey lists more than 30 "Antelope" place names in California south of Parallel 38[degrees] North, (6) pronghorn were extirpated from southern California prior to 1950, and the species is now endangered in Lower California (O'Gara and Yoakum 2004). Then, beginning in 1987, translocated pronghorn were reintroduced to San Luis Obispo, Kern, and Los Angeles counties in southern California (Koch and Yoakum 2002). Captive populations of the endangered Antilocapra americana peninsularis in Baja California Sur and Antilocapra americana sonoriensis in southwest Arizona have also been established with the intention of eventually restoring desert pronghorn to historic habitats. These efforts, at least some of which appear to be successful, coupled with the recent replacement of large areas of coastal sage scrub by annual grasslands more conducive to pronghorn (Weislander 1934; Minnich and Dezzani 1998) prompted us to aid in the evaluation of additional releases by documenting the historic occurrences of "antelope" and berrendos in southern California, Baja California and Baja California Sur.
Methods
Contacted museums included the American Museum of Natural History in New York (AMNH), Natural History Museum in London (BMNH), California Academy of Sciences (CAS), Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM), Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (LACM), Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard (MCZ), Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), San Diego Museum of Natural History (SDNHM), Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), U.S. National Museum (USNM), and Burke Museum of Natural History at the University of Washington (UWBM). Literature sources were sought in both the popular and scientific literature giving the approximate dates and locations of pronghorn observations in southern California and lower California prior to 1950. Publications especially helpful in this endeavor were Jim Yoakum's (1967) annotated bibliography on the species, Morris Heller's (1997) bibliography of hunting books, and Eric Mellink's (2000) biography of collector Edward Funcke. The following bibliography, while comprehensive, is not exhaustive, and other sources, especially those in Spanish and referring to the Spanish period, remain to be uncovered.
Results
In addition to the museum specimens shown in Table 1, we have assembled the following historic references to pronghorn in the Californias south of San Francisco Bay:
Anderson, H. T., Jr. 1932. The pronghorn antelope. California Fish and Game 18: 258-259.
Anderson reports on recent pronghorn sightings in the Mojave Desert near Randsburg and in Antelope Valley.
Anderson, H. T., Jr. 1934. The pronghorn antelope in Los Angeles County, California Fish and Game 20:91-92.
A total of seven pronghorn was reported in Los Angeles County in July, 1932. By December 1933 only four does could be located in the rolling low hills of Antelope Valley. With no males present it was apparent that the county's pronghorn would soon be extirpated.
Bolton, H. E. 1927. Fray Juan Crespi, Missionary Explorer on the Pacific Coast, 1769-1774. University of California Press, Berkeley.
While crossing the Salinas Valley on September 27, 1769, Father Crespi reported: "We saw in this day's march two bands of antelope some distance from us," and the next day, near the present site of Greenfield (Gordon 1979), "some bands of antelope were seen but not within gunshot."
Brewer, W. H. 1930. E Farquhar, ed. Up and Down California in 1860-1864. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Near New Idria, east of Tres Pinos, San Benito Co., while in the valley of Little Panoche Creek, Brewer reported that, "we came on a drove of ten antelope, the first we have seen. They were very plentiful a few years ago in this state, in large flocks." Earlier, on June 10, 1861, Brewer reports coming upon a herd of "thirty or forty antelope" at Canada del Puerto in Stanislaus County, and later, on June 19, he and his party saw a herd of pronghorn in the San Joaquin Valley near San Luis (Merced Co.) 27 miles from Pacheco Pass. Brewer goes on to report antelope in San Ramon Valley near Mount Diablo (Contra Costa Co.), Pacheco Valley (Santa Clara Co.), and between Visalia and the Kern River in Kern County.
Bryant, E. 1848. What I saw in California. D. Appleton and Co., New York.
Bryant reported seeing "several large droves of antelope and deer," some 40 to 50 miles above the mouth of the San Joaquin River (probably near present day Tracy in San Joaquin County). He also reported that the San Joaquin Plain was furrowed with deep trails of horses, elk, deer, and antelope. Bryant considered antelope as occurring in California in "large numbers" with "large flocks" being present in the Sacramento Valley along the American River.
Burcham, L. T. 1957. California range land, an historico-ecological study of the range resources of California. California Department of Natural Resources, Sacramento. 261 p.
Prior to European settlement, the range lands of California were only used moderately by pronghorn, deer, and elk. Burcham provides several early accounts from journals referring to historic pronghorn distribution. "Considered in its entirety, the native animal community had a relatively small effect on the plant cover." In parts of California, pronghorn were abundant and formed a mainstay of subsistence for the Indians, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley where the animals formed large herds numbering up to 2,000 to 3,000 head.
Caton, J. D. 1877. The antelope and deer of America. Forest and Stream Publishing Company, New York.
According to Dr. Canfield of Montera [Monterey], antelope were very abundant in the Monterey area's coastal grasslands from the Coast Ranges down to the sea 25 years earlier [early 1850's]. Canfield, who attempted to raise pronghorn in captivity, told Caton that "California at this time [ca. 1876] is almost entirely deserted by them."
Cheney, E. S. 1929. California Fish and Game 15:175.
Cheney reports on the increasing numbers of pronghorn in California's northeastern counties but makes no mention of any animals in central or southern California.
Crosby, H. W. 2003. Gateway...
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