![\"INFG](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/INFG-Pronghorn-in-southwest-Wyoming-kept-giving-the-80-megawatt-Sweetwater-solar-farm-a-wider-and-wi.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Wyoming")
The Pulse edition<\/p>\nWildlife biologists studying resident pronghorn in southwest Wyoming documented behavioral modifications due to a large solar power facility.<\/p>\n
Five years of GPS data gathered from these animals\u2019 movements showed that pronghorn herds gradually moved farther away from the 80-megawatt Sweetwater solar power plant. It was surrounded by security fencing in an ideal sagebrush prairie range.<\/p>\n
The number of weekly encounters of individual animals within 328 feet of the perimeter fence went from 0.90 to only 0.05.<\/p>\n
Tracking pronghorn movements across sagebrush habitat<\/p>\n
Highly accurate GPS tracking collars were attached to dozens of wild pronghorns in Wyoming\u2019s Red Desert area.<\/p>\n
The transmitters recorded highly accurate satellite coordinates every two hours before, during, and after the development of the Sweetwater array.<\/p>\n
Initially created movement maps revealed that the collared herds had the freedom to move about the sagebrush prairie that was eventually developed as the solar energy farm.<\/p>\n
Setting up the 6.6-foot chain-link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire cut off movement paths across native spring and summer range.<\/p>\n
The security fencing directly excluded pronghorn from habitat within the array\u2019s footprint while prompting localized avoidance of surrounding areas.<\/p>\n
High-tech GPS collars revealed a sustained shift in space use, with resident animals increasingly avoiding the landscape surrounding the facility.<\/p>\n
Quantifying long-term avoidance around perimeter fences<\/p>\n
Statistical spatial modeling was used to determine how often pronghorns wearing a collar came within 328 feet of the facility boundary fence.<\/p>\n
In the beginning construction phase, curious and displaced animals would graze close to the recently built chain-link security fence.<\/p>\n
Approaches to the fence were at 0.90 times per week per individual in the early facility development stage.<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n
Five years after construction was completed, approaches became steadily less frequent, reaching 0.05 times per week.<\/p>\n
Pronghorns steadily increased the distance buffer from photovoltaic paneling and fencing.<\/p>\n
The decline of approaches indicates that the displacement problem was increasing and not decreasing with time. Time led to spatial avoidance and not habituation.<\/p>\n
The Pulse edition<\/p>\n
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Altering seasonal migration paths around solar arrays<\/p>\n
Resident pronghorn altered their spatial distribution to avoid the 700-acre industrial solar facility during the spring and summer study periods (April 1 to September 30).<\/p>\n
Animals on adjacent public lands maintained a buffer zone around the security fence, reducing their use of habitat near the development.<\/p>\n
By shifting away from the installation, pronghorn concentrated their activity in remaining available pastures, which can increase grazing competition on surrounding sagebrush range.<\/p>\n
This spatial avoidance effectively expanded the facility\u2019s ecological impact zone beyond its physical boundary, reducing usable habitat<\/a> for resident herds during the warm season.<\/p>\n Re-evaluating wildlife habituation assumptions<\/p>\n Renewable energy project planners tend to rely on the assumption that native wildlife populations adapt to renewable infrastructure over time.<\/p>\n Five years of empirical field data reveal that resident pronghorn at this facility did not habituate to the solar array over the study period.<\/p>\n Pronghorn exhibited continual behavioral avoidance during the spring and summer months, with no indication of habituating to the operational facility over the five-year post-construction monitoring period.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Avoidance of operational solar installations limits usable habitat for wildlife.<\/p>\n