Antelope
The fastest animals in Montana are the antelope. Amazingly, they have been clocked at speeds up to 70 miles per hour and can cruise at 30 miles per hour for extended periods of time. At their top speed, they could be ticketed for exceeding the speed limit, that is, if the police cruisers could catch them. Because they live in open prairie, their speed is required to help them to elude their predators.
On the wide, open prairies near Red Lodge, Montana, the traveler will see numerous antelope. Antelope are easy to spot because they live in the open prairie all across the eastern two-thirds of Montana.
The male antelope, or bucks, usually have horns about a foot long that have prongs, which curve at the tips. Even the mature females, or does, have these horns. Thus, they have been given the name "pronghorn antelope". They are unique as they are the only animal to have branched horns.
Another unique characteristic of the pronghorn antelope is that they shed their horn sheaths each year – the only horned animal to do so. Perhaps as evidence of some of the evolutionary theories, the closest genetic cousin to the antelope is found in Africa!