Fracking drives pronghorn herds out of Wyoming habitat

[xchrom]

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21786-fracking-drives-pronghorn-herds-out-of-wyoming-habitat.html


A herd of pronghorns graze near a natural gas drilling rig, Pinedale, Wyoming (Image: Joel Sartore/NGS/Getty Images)

Meet the latest player in the fractious debate over "fracking" for natural gas: the pronghorn. Disturbance from drilling is causing the fleet-footed ungulates to vacate their prime wintering grounds in Wyoming.

In winter, pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) migrate from higher ground to the Upper Green River basin – which in recent years has experienced a boom in gas drilling.

To study the effects of this development, a team led by Jon Beckmann, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, based in Bozeman, Montana, put GPS collars on 125 female pronghorn and tracked their movement.

Between 2005 and 2009 the researchers documented a five-fold decline in the use of habitat patches predicted to be of the highest quality, as the animals avoided areas disturbed by drilling. "We are seeing the abandonment of crucial winter range," says Beckmann.


***honest to god -- you'd think people would pick up the ringing Clue Phone faster than they do.

[stuntcat]

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