Recent pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) translocations to southern California and the establishment of captive populations of endangered desert pronghorn have revived interest in the historical occurrence of pronghorn in the Californias. Adding to this interest is the recent widespread replacement of coastal sage scrub vegetation in southern California by annual grasslands more favorable to pronghorn. We have searched the scientific and popular literature, as well as museum collections, to locate pronghorn antelope occurrences from below San Francisco Bay southward through the Baja California peninsula. Our results show that pronghorn were widely distributed, and often abundant, on nearly all of the plains and valleys on both sides of the Coastal and Peninsular ranges to at least as far south as the Magdalena Plain.

Although the U.S. Geological Survey lists more than 30 “Antelope” place names in California south of Parallel 38° North,^6, pronghorn were extirpated from southern California prior to 1950, and the species is now endangered in Lower California (O'Gara and Yoakum 2004). Then, beginning in 1987, translocated pronghorn were reintroduced to San Luis Obispo, Kern, and Los Angeles counties in southern California (Koch and Yoakum 2002). Captive populations of the endangered Antilocapra americana peninsularis in Baja California Sur and Antilocapra americana sonoriensis in southwest Arizona have also been established with the intention of eventually restoring desert pronghorn to historic habitats. These efforts, at least some of which appear to be successful, coupled with the recent replacement of large areas of coastal sage scrub by annual grasslands more conducive to pronghorn (Weislander 1934; Minnich and Dezzani 1998) prompted us to aid in the evaluation of additional releases by documenting the historic occurrences of “antelope” and berrendos in southern California, Baja California and Baja California Sur.