A cheetah crouches in the tall grass. Pronghorn graze warily in the cool summer breeze. After minutes of quiet patience the cheetah erupts into a burst of muscle and speed. A small herd of pronghorn sprint into action, their nimble legs churning ground. A race for life ensues as the cheetah and pronghorn tear across the prairie. But bad luck this time for the cheetah; it retires to the shade for another hungry morning as the pronghorn dance away into the grass.

You may be wondering what a cheetah, a big African cat, is doing chasing pronghorn, an iconic North American species. Well, you may be surprised to hear that North America used to be home to many animals you would recognize only on the African savannah, and many that you wouldn’t recognize at all. This very scene may have played out in your own backyard – well 20,000 years ago, anyway. This period in North America’s history was the Pleistocene era, more commonly known as our most recent ice age.

This Field Note was written by Tom McKean. Would you be interested in writing one? Contact Allison De Jong, Field Notes editor, at adejong [at] montananaturalist [dot] org or 406.327.0405. Please visit the Field Notes website at the Montana Natural History Center for more information.