An off-leash dog may have spooked a pronghorn off a cliff near Boise, officials say
A female antelope died after falling from a cliff near Lucky Peak on Tuesday, narrowly missing a group of rock climbers on the ground below, according to a news release from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
Officials say the pronghorn antelope ran “full speed off the cliffs of Hammer Flat” in the Boise River Wildlife Management Area on Tuesday afternoon. The animals can reach speeds up to 60 mph.
“The climbers reported hearing a ‘whistling sound’ and were startled to look up and see the doe hurtling toward them,” the news release said. “The doe landed within 10 feet of the climbers, and more than 20 feet from the base of the cliff, suffering a broken neck and numerous internal injuries.”
The doe was wearing a tracking collar as part of a project to study seasonal movements of pronghorn. She was also pregnant with twin fawns.
Fish and Game officials said pronghorn can sometimes fall to their death in dense fog situations, when the edges of cliffs are obscured. But there was no fog Tuesday when the animal died. Conservation officer Joey Ishida said in a phone interview that the “most likely scenario” is that the pronghorn was startled by an off-leash dog.
“Something had to spook that animal,” Ishida said. “I don’t remember an animal ever flying off a cliff like this.”
He said officials did not witness an off-leash dog in the area Tuesday.
“In this story, the theory is that a WMA guest recreating on Hammer Flat was doing so with an off-leash dog. The dog spooked the doe pronghorn from her day bed or otherwise made her feel trapped,” according to the news release.
Dogs are required to be on-leash in the wildlife management area, and that restriction is especially important in winter when wildlife are conserving energy to get through the season, Ishida said.
“Right now we have literally thousands of animals winter on the wildlife management area,” he said. “They can’t distinguish if that animal running at large is a threat to them.”
Ishida said dogs don’t usually chase large game like antelope, deer or elk in the area, though conservation officer Ben Cadwallader cited a woman in the area in December for allowing her off-leash dog to chase antelope.
Ishida said the area has been busy lately due to mild weather and “shed hunters” looking for antlers that deer and elk have shed.
“A lot of those folks are looking for sheds,” he said. “There are dogs that are trained to find sheds … and it’s OK to do that, they just need to be on-leash.”
Dogs are allowed to be off-leash in the area if they’re actively hunting. There are not currently any open hunting seasons in the area.
Dog owners with off-leash dogs could receive a warning or citation from Fish and Game, which ramps up enforcement efforts this time of year.
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 9:45 AM.
