Los Cabos, BCS. _ There are species of the WILDLIFE that form a fundamental part of a region's identity, he said. Gustavo Danemann in the Summit 2024 from Sea of Cortez Forum. The peninsular pronghornendemic to the Baja California peninsulais one of them and it is vital for the biodiversity of this desert area.
The Director of Pronatura Noroeste participated in the talk Rescuing pronghorn from extinctionin which Victor Sanchez Sotomayorin charge of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserveexplained to the attendees the efforts that have been made for more than 30 years to preserve this species, which is in the process of extinction. danger of extinction.
"There are species that are emblematic of each region, one of them is the California condor, a success story that fills us with pride. The rescue of the peninsular pronghorn is a project that seems to me to be very similar in terms of the sacrifice it has required and the importance it has," said Danemann.
The marine biologist explained that the peninsular pronghorn is an antelope endemic to the central desert region of the Baja California peninsula, where it has been present since prehistoric times, as is confirmed by cave paintings found in the San Francisco Mountains. However, from herds that numbered thousands of animals, we are left with little more than 200 at the end of the last century.
Victor Sanchez said that he has been fascinated by this species since he first encountered it, to the point of making it his thesis topic. But he was very frustrated to learn that this animal that was revered by our ancestors went from a population of 60 million in 1875 to a few thousand in 1900 in North America.
"By 1901, there were 25,000 pronghorn in the United States and another 5,000 in Mexico. They did dedicate themselves to pronghorn conservation and currently have one million in Wyoming and other states, practically all the states west of the Mississippi. In Mexico we have 3,000 in three different subspecies," he said.
On the brink of extinction
Sanchez Sotomayor clarified that one of these three subspecies is the peninsular pronghornendemic to the Baja California peninsula, of which there were little more than 200 specimens left in 1993.
"We realized that they were on the canvas and then there arose a kind of internal rebellion. How is it possible that our ancestors respected it, cared for it, it was revered, and we threw them out?" he said he questioned himself at the time.
From there arose the task of rescuing this species and in 1998 they started the program, with the support of Ford Motor Company which has been funding this effort for 13 years together with Semarnat.
"It is a concrete fact that in 2011, the wild peninsular pronghorn became extinct," he emphasized. From 2012 to date, we have released more than 1,200 specimens. The most important reintroduction was between 2021 and 2022, where we were able to reintroduce and release 200 pronghorn into the wild, outside of corrals," he said.
The person in charge of the El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve stressed that it is necessary to continue with this effort in order to release 100 pronghorn each year, because only 20 percent manage to survive in the wild. The rest die from different causes such as poaching, climate change, aridity, competition with livestock and disease.
It is a species that generates life
In the talk, Danemann asked Sanchez Sotomayor about his main concerns regarding the pronghorn conservation and the challenges facing this project. Continuity of the species was the immediate response.
Sanchez Sotomayor explained that the pronghorn is very important because it is a desert farmer. Its ecological and biological function makes it possible that when the rains come there can be explosions of life in this area. ecosystemsupporting other species.
"The pronghorn is fundamental, it is a key species, as could be the cardón, the sahuaros, the pines. They are species that bring together a cluster of species with which they evolve, so the fact that the pronghorn is not present has made the country more arid, that is definitive," he said.
Today, after more than 30 years of work, the population of the peninsular pronghorn is more than 600 animals. Progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go.
The biologist also said that they are hopeful that the new Federal Government to have a different vision and to give continuity to these efforts that have been going on for many years.
"We need to increase the biomass of pronghorn or priority species, as we call them, because of their quality and population status. We need to increase their biomass in such a way that we can saturate the ecosystem in which they live and allow the evolutionary pathways inherent to the biology of these species to give them continuity," he said.
Before concluding, he also launched a call to the attendees to the Summit 2024 to turn resolutely, wholeheartedly and without fear of action, to conservation projects.
