Home, home on the range,
where the deer and the antelope play…
Is there someplace in the world where deer and antelope would both be found (and, presumably, “play”)?
“the Range” is not an acceptable answer."
Your link is for true antelopes, which live in Africa. Pronghorns are not true antelope but are usually called “antelope” in the US. They live and, and presumably play if so inclined, on the same range as some deer species.
The pronghorn is the only surviving member of Family Antilocapridae, which had dozens of extinct genera. “True antelopes” belong to several subfamilies of Family Bovidae, which includes cattle, sheep, and goats along with them.
I don’t want to hijack your question, but deer have become so common in Nashville suburbs that they are no longer startled by human beings. I can drive up in my daughter’s backyard and the buck, doe and fawn stare at me but don’t flee. Are they that way in other places?
Are pronghorn “antelopes” ever that comfortable around human beings?
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, New Mexico - lots of places around here.
OK, thanks for the clarification. Can we assume that Pronghorn are what the songwriter had in mind?
Considering that there are no deer in Africa (where most true antelopes are found)…probably.
Correction…no native deer in Africa. Fallow deer were imported to South Africa and spread, but I’m pretty sure the song is meant to refer to the southwest/west of the USA.
Almost certainly. And despite the post indicating that they were once reduced almost to extinction, they are now a common sight in many open plains areas of the west.
I’m not sure they “play” much with deer, but they certainly coexist with them. They are notoriously difficult to approach closely - they have terriffic eyesight and are much the fastest land animal in North America. Indeed, it’s something of a mystery how an animal evolves a running speed of around 45mph in the absence of a predator with anything approaching that speed.
Must be all that X-treme playing they do! 
There used to be North American “Cheetahs” (really, more closely related to pumas) running around on the grasslands of North America. IIRC, they went extinct shortly after the ancestors of todays native Americans showed up.
Yes, it would definitely be the pronghorn “antelope” that the songwriter had in mind. The most likely species of deer to be found on “the range” would be Mule Deer, though these would usually be near wooded or semi-wooded areas or scrub.
Native deer do not co-exist with true antelope in most of Africa, and true antelope do not occur in the Americas. However, deer and true antelope can be found together in much of Asia.
I’m guessing a wolf could give it a run for it’s money.
I’ve seen Gray Wolf top speeds estimated at anywhere from 30-45 mph.
When pronghorns move, they really move. I was driving along a dirt road in Utah one morning when I came upon a solitary adult male pronghorn. He ran off the road, then ran alongside the road, pacing me at 40mph for about 1/2 mile before veering off. It was obvious that he was just cruising along at that speed–it looked like he had another 10mph in him, easy.
The guy who wrote this song was probably the same one that hung the name “Buffalo Bill” on William Cody. “Bison Bill” just doesn’t have the same ring to it!
When I was a child, “antelope” was the common usage for Antilocapra americanus; the common use of “pronghorn” to distinguish them from “true antelope” came a long when I was in my teens, after one of those “the jackrabbit is really a hare” memes about how “the pronghorn antelope is not really an antelope” spread rapidly. Every kid knew just what beasts were being referred to by “…the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play” even though the nitpickery terminological error rate was two out of three.
Thanks for the link - this would indeed tend to explain the remarkable speeds that pronghorns can reach.
The link notes that the top speed may be close to 60mph, and probably isn’t due to predation by wolves.
Incidently, on approaching pronghorns - they can outrun practically anything in the open, but can be “trapped” in a fence corner. Unlike deer, they are hesitant to jump fences, though probably physically capable of doing so. They prefer to search along a fence row to find a place they can go under it.
Yes, but a pronghorn can top 60 MPH for several minutes before tiring and can run ag 30 MPH for several miles. I’ve even heard they’ve been clocked at around 84 MPH at their fastest.
That’s not to say they don’t get eaten, as fawns do, and some adults, but a healthy adult can easily outrun any wolf (although if a wolf can corner one, that’s another story).
California used to have huge herds. I read a book on Monterey’s natural history that says the Spanish treated them like cattle and would cull individuals for their hides every so often.