This species is the most conspicuous (and possibly the most abundant) ungulate in Harding County. It ranges throughout the county on flat and rolling grasslands where small groups, and occasionally herds of up to 50 individuals, were seen in 1960, 1961, 1963, 1968, and 1970. Visher (1914:88) reported that the pronghorn was common in the area until about 1900, but that it was near the point of extinction when he visited the county in 1910 and 1912.
Bison bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758)
Bison
According to historical accounts (Anonymous, 1959), the bison was rare or absent in Harding County at the time of settlement in 1876. By the early 1880's, however, herds were of regular occurrence, and there is one record (op. cit.: 95-96) of thousands crossing the Little Missouri near Camp Crook in November of 1882.
One report has it that the last bison killed in the county was shot in the summer of 1884 (op. cit.: 73-74), but Visher (1914:88) reported that an "old settler" had seen "a small bunch in 1886." Visher also reported finding bison remains, probably in 1910 or 1912, to the northeast of the North Cave Hills and west of the South Cave Hills.
Ovis canadensis auduboni Merriam, 1901
Mountain Sheep
According to Visher (1914:88), mountain sheep formerly inhabited all the areas of buttes in Harding County but were extirpated in the 1890's. Sheep Mountain, a large butte just below the south end of the Slim Buttes, was reported to be the last area in which these animals occurred. Over and Churchill (1945:54) mentioned both the Cave Hills and Slim Buttes as localities formerly inhabited by O. c. auduboni.
Early in 1961, the South Dakota Game Commission introduced 12 animals, four rams and eight ewes, from Alberta (subspecies O. c. canadensis) on the Slim Buttes, but none is known to have survived to 1968.