The Story of
The Bald Eagles Verses the Pronghorn
June 6, 2026
©2016, John Freeman
I am not sure why this story of this epic battle popped into my head last night after so many years. I wanted to write it down before it settled back into my gray matter and got lost forever. It happened when I was in about the sixth or seventh grade, 12 or 13 years old. I grew up on a small farm in east central Wyoming. Our farm was located about 3 miles east of Lost Springs, Wyoming. Dad drove the school bus that took me to the little two room school in Keeline, Wyoming. It was on our way home after finishing the bus route late one afternoon that Dad and I witnessed an unbelievable interaction between a pair of Bald Eagles and a doe Pronghorn.
Through the winter of that year we had seen a mated pair of Bald Eagles numerous times hanging out in an area west of our farm. Bald Eagles were quite rare in that part of Wyoming at that time and we always enjoyed seeing them. Often we would see them perched on a fence post scanning the prairie for an unfortunate Jack Rabbit. Other times we would see them alongside the highway feeding on a rabbit, deer or Pronghorn that had be hit by a vehicle on the highway. While I don’t recall the exact time of year, I would say that it was somewhere in the early February to early March time that Dad and I witnessed what I am about to tell you.
We were headed east on Highway 20 just past the Converse & Niobrara County line marker. Our neighbor Fred Brugger Sr. owned an narrow strip of pasture land along the south side of the highway. This pasture was about 1 mile long and 1/4 mile wide. The Wyoming Highway Department had completed new construction of the highway three or four years prior and so the fence between the highway and pasture was a newly constructed 5 wire barbed wire fence intended to discourage wildlife from crossing onto the highway right of way. About that same time my Dad and Fred Brugger had constructed a new fence along the south side of the 1/4 mile wide pasture to enclose the 160 acres of land. Dad had rented that strip of land for several years prior along with a pasture that joined it on the south. Fred had decided he didn’t want to rent it anymore so they built the new fence. Net result was the long narrow pasture had good new fencing that made it difficult for the Pronghorns to enter or exit this pasture.
Several Pronghorn would often graze in this 160 acres because it had good grass because Fred hadn’t put any cattle on the previous summer. A windmill, on which the shut off didn’t work, ran year around so there was always water in the stock tank for the Pronghorn to drink from. With good grazing and water available there was little motivation to leave this tightly fenced pasture. That is until this particular evening.
I was mindless staring out the window of the bus when Dad shouted “Look at those eagles chasing that Antelope!”, which is what we always called the Pronghorns. I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw one of the eagles riding on the back of a full grown Antelope with his talons firmly latched onto the animals back. The second eagle hovered a few feet overhead. The Antelope was bucking like a wild bronco and the eagle was hanging on like a bronco rider in a rodeo. Every opportunity that it got the eagle would bite at the Antelopes neck or back. Instead of the normal white and brown the Antelope’s back was red with blood and it ran in circles and bucked across the pasture desperately attempting to escape her attacker.
Dad slowed down and pulled the bus to a stop on the edge of the highway. Over the next probably twenty to thirty minutes we watched as the Eagles tag teamed attacking the Antelope. When one Eagle would tire, it would let go and the other one would swoop down and sink it’s talons into the Antelope’s back and continue the attack. We watched as the Antelope would run against the fence or try to jump the fence. Antelope most commonly crawl between the wires at a weak part of the fence rather than jump. Either as result of disorientation in its state of panic or the fact there was no weak points it couldn’t find a place to get through the fence. Any attempt to jump the fence in its state of exhaustion and extra weight on its back failed.
We watched as the Eagles pecked at the Antelope’s back grabbing mouthfuls of hair which blew away in the breeze. As time went on Dad remarked that “They aren’t even waiting for the Antelope to die.” We could see the Eagle bite chunks of flesh from the Antelope’s neck and back. As soon as it did, it would let go of the Antelope and fly off allowing its mate to then attack again. After what seemed like an eternity, the Antelope began to stumble and fall down. Bleeding profusely by this time, it would struggle to get back on its feet, kicking at the Eagles, swinging its head, anything it could do to ward off the attack. Finally, the Antelope laid down and no longer attempted to stand up. As soon as it did, the second Eagle also swooped down and landed on the now dyeing Antelope. As the Antelope made a few more feeble attempts to move both Eagles began to feed on the still alive Antelope. Dad and I watched for a few more minutes until it was obvious the Antelope had died. At that point we drove on to our house as it was time to milk the cow.
Over the next week or so every morning and evening when we passed by the dead carcass we would usually see both Eagles either feeding on the Antelope or perched on a fence post nearby. Within less than two weeks all that was left was bones and a patch of white hair at the kill site. As the spring proceeded it became apparent that this pair of Eagles were quite skilled at attacking and killing Antelope. At least two more carcasses showed up in that pasture during the next couple of months. Around mid April the Eagles disappeared, probably moving to an area with trees, more suitable for nesting. We didn’t see them again until the following winter when again we began to notice dead Antelope carcasses in the same pasture. We never did witness another attack. After the second winter we never saw the Eagle pair again.
It has been over 60 years since Dad and I witnessed this. To this day, I have never heard of anyone else report seeing Bald Eagles taking a grown Pronghorn. There are videos online of Golden Eagles taking Pronghorn. The sheer power of these birds has been etched into my mind over the years.