Texas Trivia (Houston, San Antonio, Austin: YMCA, selling, student)

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by joqua

Assuming you think I'm right, here's my next easy question:

Texas boasts the nation's largest herd of what?

Whitetail Deer: "Texas boasts the largest white tail deer population in the nation, somewhere between 3 and 4 million". It is interesting that the early land grants did not report any deer in the area.


Texas Boasts Largest White-tail Deer Herd, But Not Always So - YouTube

[doctorjef]

You know, that crossed my mind, partly based on the land mass and large rural area of Texas (though those urban cows live quite well in the suburbs of Austin). I must say, though, that deer in Texas always seemed quite small in size in comparison to ones in the Mountain West or for that matter here in the Mid-Atlantic East (they're as much a nuisance here as in the burbs of Austin). I recall reading that there are today more deer in North America than when Columbus made his expeditions to the New World.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

You know, that crossed my mind, partly based on the land mass and large rural area of Texas (though those urban cows live quite well in the suburbs of Austin). I must say, though, that deer in Texas always seemed quite small in size in comparison to ones in the Mountain West or for that matter here in the Mid-Atlantic East (they're as much a nuisance here as in the burbs of Austin). I recall reading that there are today more deer in North America than when Columbus made his expeditions to the New World.

Makes sense, we have killed off most of their natural predators and irrigated the land providing abundant fodder and ponds for water. Texas deer are small compared to what I grew up around in Wyoming. Probably an adaptation to living in the brush rather then pine forests.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

And of course they are actually two different species. Feral hogs are domesticated pigs that have got loose and bred in the wild. Javalinas are native North American pigs that are indigenous to south/south-central Texas and Mexico. Not sure which are the most populous in Texas and if they ever inter-breed.

No, they can't interbreed. Wild hogs were introduced to the Americas as domesticated members of the Eurasian Wild Boar, a member of a different family than the Collared Peccary (Javelina, in Spanish), a New-World family, but of the same sub-order.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Whitetail Deer: "Texas boasts the largest white tail deer population in the nation, somewhere between 3 and 4 million". It is interesting that the early land grants did not report any deer in the area.

Well, I pass the blue ribbon back to you.

Originally Posted by CptnRn

Texas deer are small compared to what I grew up around in Wyoming. Probably an adaptation to living in the brush rather then pine forests.

There are plenty of mule deer in Texas, in places you might least expect them. One of my favorite places to hunt, back when I did so, was a huge ranch accessed from the road that parallels the Rio Grande south of Presidio. The ranch owner guaranteed anyone paying his "per gun fee" that they would take home a deer - even if it was one shot by someone in his employee! I also had good luck in the Sanderson area, as well as farther north along the Tex/NM border near Dell City. I never had the desire to hunt the whitetail as they are so often hunted, by baiting and sitting in a tree stand waiting for the deer to take the bait.

I got to thinking about the question I asked, and I suppose there are several different species that might qualify as "largest population in the nation." Not sure if the place still has them, but at one time there was a large section of land that sported some sort of monkeys that were breeding like rabbits! That surely has to be unique to that location in terms of the rest of the USA?

2005 Article about the Snow Monkeys of Texas

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by joqua

Well, I pass the blue ribbon back to you.
There are plenty of mule deer in Texas, in places you might least expect them. One of my favorite places to hunt, back when I did so, was a huge ranch accessed from the road that parallels the Rio Grande south of Presidio. The ranch owner guaranteed anyone paying his "per gun fee" that they would take home a deer - even if it was one shot by someone in his employee! I also had good luck in the Sanderson area, as well as farther north along the Tex/NM border near Dell City. I never had the desire to hunt the whitetail as they are so often hunted, by baiting and sitting in a tree stand waiting for the deer to take the bait.

Yeah, I never understood the bait and tree blind method of hunting. Growing up in Wyoming we felt that stalking your game was the only fair way to go about it.

Next question, probably an easy one: Along similar lines... from as far back as the 1970's an exotic animal that is not native to this area has been making Austin, TX its home. There are large colonies of them living in the area that can often be sighted around town. What are they?

I will be leaving soon for the evening. If you answer this and can document your answer then go ahead and ask the next question.

[jtur88]

Interesting. Here is a national map showing the density of White-tail Deer populations.

The Quality Deer Management Association's Whitetail Map Guide

In Michigan, we call them "rats with antlers" and over 60,000 reportable car crashes per year involve deer. That's an average of two per day in each county. One every 9 minutes, statewide.

[joqua]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

There are large colonies of them living in the area that can often be sighted around town. What are they?

This must be the Mexican free-tail bats that are seasonal (summer) visitors and inhabit a bridge structure over Lady Bird Lake (Town Lake) on Congress Ave in downtown:

Bats can be a tourist attraction. The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas is the summer home to North America's largest urban bat colony, an estimated 1,500,000 Mexican free-tailed bats, which eat an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects each night. An estimated 100,000 tourists per year visit the bridge at twilight to watch the bats leave the roost.

I chose the bats because they typically live in "colonies."

But the answer could also apply to the "flocks" of boat-tailed grackles which had become such a nuisance in more recent times. Not sure if they still are, but when I lived there and attended UT Austin, they made a mess of campus and the maintenance people went around at sunset firing off blank shotgun shells to keep them stirred up and from roosting in the live oaks on campus.

Unlike many birds, the grackle benefits from the expansion of human populations due to its resourceful and opportunistic nature. The common grackle population has greatly increased in the Austin, Texas, area in recent years and is regarded as nuisance by some, due to aggressive behavior. Common grackles are considered a serious threat to crops by some, and notoriously difficult to exterminate and usually require the use of hawks or similar large birds of prey.[

[CptnRn]

They are not bats or grackles, which I think are native to the area. I chose the word "colonies" to describe a group of the critters, not wanting to make it too easy.

Hint: they are native to Argentina

[joqua]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

They are not bats or grackles, which I think are native to the area. I chose the word "colonies" to describe a group of the critters, not wanting to make it too easy.

Hint: they are native to Argentina

Perhaps it's "imported fire ants?" The ones that have virtually taken over the southern tier of states are believed to have entered through the port of Mobile, AL from a South America origin. And they typically live in "colonies."

Like most people living in Austin, I couldn't mow my lawn without being attacked, in spite of various attempts at controlling them. Until gecko lizards arrived on the scene sometime around 1990. Once my house became infested with geckos, the fire ants disappeared, so I gladly put up with the geckos.