Pronghorn Antelope Conservation

This stamp is the second in a series of wildlife conservation stamps issued in 1956. The pronghorn antelope's habitat is mostly in Canada and the American Northwest. Population estimates of antelope today are between 500,000 and one million. They may exceed the human population in Wyoming today but this was not always the case. In primitive times antelope might have outnumbered bison which were estimated to be about 40 million around 1800. But by 1915 the population had dropped to a low of 15,000. By the early 1920s, primarily because of a total ban on pronghorn hunting nationwide and the establishment of game preserves, the population had increased to an estimated 30,326. The stamp was issued on June 22, 1956 at the Izaak Walton League's annual convention in Colorado, an envirnomental group founded in 1922.