Pronghorn Comeback and Screwworm's Return: Inside West Texas Wildlife Fight

Frequently Asked Questions

Why can't pronghorn simply jump fences like deer?

Pronghorn evolved on wide-open plains and bet their survival on being able to see danger from far away, not leap over obstacles. As Lalo Gonzalez explains in the episode, they physically can't and won't jump fences, so any standard livestock fence becomes an impassable wall that cuts them off from food and safe habitat.

How did Texas Parks and Wildlife rebuild the West Texas pronghorn population?

Beginning in 2010-2011, TPWD and local landowners translocated roughly 1,000 pronghorn from the Panhandle, where irrigated alfalfa fields had created surplus animals, down to the Marfa and Marathon grasslands. They paired that with wildlife-friendly fencing, raising bottom wires to about 18 inches so pronghorn could walk underneath, and aggressive brush reduction to restore open habitat.

What is New World screwworm and why is its return concerning?

Screwworm is a fly that lays eggs in open wounds on livestock, wildlife or people, and the hatching larvae eat living flesh. The U.S. pushed it to Panama in the 1960s using sterile-fly technology, but recent positive cases have appeared in Texas livestock and in Mexican wildlife that cross the border freely, even after cattle imports were paused.

Who is Lalo Gonzalez?

Gonzalez is chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at Sul Ross State University and a faculty leader with the Borderlands Research Institute in Alpine. He earned his master's studying blue quail and a PhD in desert bighorn sheep restoration alongside Texas Parks and Wildlife, and now oversees BRI research spanning West Texas conservation challenges.

Why does the episode emphasize private landowners so heavily?

Texas is 95% privately owned, so as Gonzalez puts it, conservation starts and ends with landowners. Stewards like Nile Maxwell have removed historic fencing, opened gates to researchers and Parks and Wildlife, and supported science and education, making landowner buy-in the single most decisive factor in whether species like pronghorn recover.

What other species and issues is the Borderlands Research Institute working on?

BRI's work spans scaled quail, black bears, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, grassland birds and sandhill cranes, plus soil health, hydrology, wetlands and drone-based remote sensing. The team is also tracking new disease threats, including the first pneumonia outbreaks in Texas desert bighorn sheep, drought, habitat fragmentation and the loss of working landscapes across the Trans-Pecos.

What opportunities does Sul Ross offer students interested in wildlife conservation?

BRI graduate students receive scholarships covering more than 90% of tuition plus stipends, and undergraduates can join the Borderlands Undergrad Mentorship Program (BUMP) to be paid to collect data, analyze it and travel to conferences. Gonzalez says the graduate program reports a 95% job-placement rate by graduation, with millions of acres of West Texas serving as the classroom.