SPOKANE — Now living at the Minnesota Zoo, Marcie the pronghorn antelope’s story began with a human Marcie across the country at Washington State University.
Little Marcie was not able to keep up with the rest of her herd, and antelopes at her young age tend to tuck themselves away in a hidden spot, waiting for their parents to come back and feed them in their vulnerable state, said Marcie Logsdon, WSU veterinarian in the exotic and wildlife department.
While waiting to be fed, a dog picked her up and brought her to its owners, Logsdon said. The family who found Marcie the antelope tried to reunite her with her family before bringing her to WSU earlier in the summer.
“Unfortunately, pronghorn are very flighty. They don’t tend to let people get very close to them, and … the finders did the right thing,” Logsdon said. “I want to compliment the finders on the fact that they first tried to find the family and reunite, because if they had managed to, that would have been the best possible outcome for this situation, so we really appreciate that they tried.”
When Logsdon realized her antelope was not going to be reunited with her family, she also realized releasing the young animal back into the wild did not seem like the best option.
While a lot of animals are capable of reacclimating to their natural habitat, Marcie the antelope was still too young , so it would have put too much stress on her, Logsdon said.
So, the veterinarians at WSU worked to relocate her to the Minnesota Zoo in June. The initial plan was to fly the antelope there, but the only option was to put her in cargo, which would have been too stressful.
Instead, Logsdon drove her to Minnesota with a college friend.
“We were actually able to get her over there very early on, which was good because they are a somewhat high-stress species and don’t always deal well with changes,” she said.
The Minnesota Zoo had continuously asked Logsdon what she wanted to name the animal.
Logsdon never had an answer and continued to tell the zoo to name her whatever they wanted.
“They ended up going ahead and naming her after me, which I thought was very sweet, especially since there were so many people involved in helping get this little friend to her new home,” she said. “The fact that they chose to name her after me, that was quite the honor.”
