This is a single source award for the Arizona Game and Fish Department to design and construct the necessary infrastructure associated with the establishment of an experimental, nonessential Sonoran pronghorn population outside of the species current range but within their historical range in Arizona.

credit: Florida Today

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This infrastructure will allow us to initiate the process of investigating the process associated with pronghorn reestablishment.

Results of this experiment will allow us to begin similar reintroductions elsewhere within their historical range.

The necessary infrastructure includes improvements to an existing well, constructing two waters and up to 12 forage enhancement plots within the new pen.

Currently, we are planning to construct a second pen with a total area of one half square mile on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.

Once the pen is constructed, the infrastructure needs to be in place and operational prior to populating the pen with breeding stock of the experimental pronghorn.

The expected outcome is the eventual annual release of the progeny from the pen as the principal means of establishing a second Sonoran pronghorn population.

The establishment of a second population of Sonoran Pronghorn is a necessary action identified in the Sonoran pronghorn recovery plan.

The existing pen was built at Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in the fall of 2003 in an effort to increase the population size in the U. S. and Mexico as well as providing breeding stock for the establishment of additional populations within the U. S. Since mid 2007, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in cooperation with the Arizona Game and Fish department, National Park service, Bureau of Land Management, U. S. Air Force, U. S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps have been actively engaged in planning the establishment of a second Sonoran pronghorn population.