There is this awesome video…

Evan van der Spuy vs Red Hartebeest

The bit has gotten tons of play here in Utah as ‘Antelope attacks cyclist’.  The animal in the video is a Red Hartebeest, which is in fact a species of true Antelope, genus Alcelaphus.  These guys can get pretty big, up to about 400 lb.  The cyclist is Evan van der Spuy, a rider for Team Jeep South Africa.  The largest cyclists weigh in at maybe 175 lb.

For better or worse, when Utahns hear the word ‘Antelope’, they think of their Pronghorns.  As I’ve mentioned in previous entries, Pronghorns are not from the Family Bovidae, but rather the last remaining member of the Family Antilocapridae – this is technical way of saying that Pronghorns are much more like Giraffes than true Antelope.

We’ve spent a lot of time with Pronghorns, a lot.  We’ve seen them in all sorts of situations, under attack from Coyotes and Wolves, in the rut (but never in a horn-to-horn conflict), even got a very rare glimpse of newborn Pronghorns.  They are beautiful, gentle, critters, whose main enjoyment in life seems to be to effortlessly dust off the odd goofy Canid that attempts a run at the herd.  A trophy Pronghorn buck might get to 150 lb.  The big clue in the video is that Antilocapra americana do not jump, as in, at all.  But the idea that a Pronghorn attacked a cyclist is too funny, and thus the myth is born.

 Copyright 2011 Peter F. Flynn.  No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.