1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 386 When making these bounds, pronken, this white hair, which at other times is well-nigh hidden, is made to look like a large plume laid along the back.

1972 Daily Dispatch (East London, S. Afr.) 27 July 1 The Afrikaans name means the ‘jumping buck’ and this leap is part of a display known as ‘pronk’.

1981 H. Thesen in Outeniqualander 25 June 9 More often, it is sheer speed and grace that leaves one silent with wonder; the wild joyous leaps and then the stiff legged bounce ending in that great, arched-neck bound, back crest flaring, the famous ‘pronk’ so characteristic but always so magnificent.

1994 New Scientist 8 Oct. 39/2 In four-legged animals, this pattern, jumping with all four legs together, is known as a ‘pronk’.

1959 C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 33 No one is going to..try to blackmail me with that crazy old mixture of threats and congratulations that a pronk like you falls for.

1972 L. Henderson Cage until Tame iv. 28 Whoever this pronk Durant was he had a lot to learn.

1976 L. Henderson Major Enq. xv. 102 This pronk reckons he can..point out the right one [sc. car] with a hazel twig.

1897 Zoologist Mar. 107 Springbucks will run with the white fan on their backs raised, frequently ‘pronking’. [Note] ‘Pronking’, the (Dutch) word used to denote the habit these Antelopes have of leaping to a great height into the air, the attitude..being almost exactly that of a bucking horse.

1921 W. C. Scully Harrow 103 A few springboks were ‘pronking’ with strange antics, bounding hither and thither with sheer joy of life.

1957 R. Campbell Portugal v. 90 Both the mules..began to rise off the ground as if the earth were red-hot, like springboks ‘pronking’, with all four feet at once, arching their backs.

1966 E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo ix. 154 Every hunter in the past had his theory as to why springbuck pronk, just as every Karoo farmer has today.

1991 Sci. Amer. Apr. 88/2 Animals use all kinds of different gaits to get around. Humans walk, horses gallop. Gazelles even pronk, that is, they hop on all four legs.

1992 A. W. Eckert Sorrow in our Heart xi. 682 Henry Clay leaped and pronked about in his interpretation of a Shawnee war dance.

1925 S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner Migratory Springbucks 17 I have never seen in any museum, not even in South Africa, a springbuck set up in the act of pronking, which is remarkable, because pronking is its most characteristic attitude.

1971 Sunday Mail Family Section (Brisbane) 10 June 6 The beautiful springbok..gives a spectacular alarm signal... It springs into the air, back arched, displaying a crest of pure white hairs. This is called ‘pronking’.

2005 Chicago Trib. (Nexis) 11 Apr. 1 It's hard to out-curious alpacas, which look back at humans as if we're something out of Dr. Seuss and then dash across the field with a stiff-legged leap aptly called ‘pronking’.