Category Archives: Mysterious Wildlife

Mysterious Wildlife

Rare Black Coyote (Video)

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Coyotes are the most common large predator in the United States.

With populations everywhere from Yellowstone National Park to Central Park in New York City, they are highly adaptable creatures.

In fact, the Navajo people have a tradition that coyotes would be the last animal on Earth.

Black (melanistic) coyotes are super rare and we have an exclusive video of one sent to us by our friend and research partner Todd Jurasek.

He has been getting some incredible trail camera videos of bears and bobcats in southern Oklahoma.

Now, he sends us this beautiful, black coyote in broad daylight.

Click here to watch the clip.

Melanism (think reverse of albinism) is present in many animals including canids.

With recent evidence showing red wolf DNA in coyote-like canids on the Texas Coast, it would be interesting to have a DNA sample from this black one.

The red wolf which was native from Texas/Oklahoma to the eastern seaboard had a subspecies called the “black wolf”. It was later called the Floria black wolf and was believed to be a long-extinct subspecies of red wolf.

In fact, black wolf was a term commonly used throughout the South for what is now known as the red wolf due to the presence of black individuals.

I have a copy of the 1946-47 Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Biennial Report that goes into detail about wolves in the Bayou State.

Under the headline “Predator Control” the following information is given.

“The Legislature of 1946 increased hunting license fees to $2.00. Twenty five percent of these funds (the increase) were dedicated to predator control.”

Interestingly, the article shows the above photo of a predator control officer with a dead “black wolf”.

The red was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 due to hybridization with coyotes.

Whatever this particular coyote’s genetic heritage, it is a strikingly beautiful animal and we are grateful to Todd Jurasek for sharing it with us.

Do you have videos or photos of black coyotes or other wild canids? If so, email them to chester@chestermoore.com.

Chester Moore

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Mysterious Wildlife

Red Wolf Shot-Or Not? A Look Into The Archives

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The first article I ever had published as a wildlife journalist was about red wolves and their hybridization with coyotes.

I was 19.

In high school I did a lot of research on red wolves because some of the last ones to live naturally in the wild were just a few miles from my home.

During my early research into the species, my aunt Brenda gave me this clipping from the Orange Leader newspaper dating back to 1986.

It shows a man with what looks very much like a red wolf he shot in Orange County that year. The article says the man “shot an 80-pound timber wolf”.

It’s obviously not a timber (gray) wolf but it has a lot of red wolf characteristics.

The official word was that all of the animals left were “coyotes” or at best wolf/coyote hybrids.

But at the very least this photo shows the red wolf genetic was strong in the area after the extinction declaration.

We now know this to be true as I broke the story on red wolf DNA found in a road-killed canid on Galveston Island, TX in 2018.

I was honored to win a Texas Outdoor Writer’s Association “Excellence In Craft” award for that piece.

You can read it here.

I found this photo searching for some other images and thought you might enjoy seeing this rare image from the past.

Chester Moore

You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.

Mysterious Wildlife

Not A Cat

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It crawled out of a hole in the base of an old live oak stump and sat atop as if it owned the world.

The small, striking creature had a round face, with large cupped ears and a gorgeous, banded tail.

It was an animal I had heard of and now at age 18, was seeing in a remote creek bottom in Menard County, TX.

Kasey Johnson found this ringtail in a deer blind near Spring Branch, TX.

It was a ringtail cat.

Well, that’s the name I had always heard-“ringtail cat” with the emphasis on “cat”.

My studies on this charming animal however, told me it was not a cat at all.

According to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials, the ringtail is a cat-sized carnivore that is kin to raccoons, not felids. Its bushy tail is flattened and nearly as long as the head and body, with alternating black and white rings.

These are highly nocturnal animals that conduct most of their business in the middle of the night. My sighting however was about an hour before dark and since I was positioned in a ground blind, it never knew I was there.

The ringtail sat there for 30 minutes or so and then crawled down and disappeared into the brush.

Ringtails are associated with the Texas Hill Country and Trans Pecos and according to TPWD are distributed statewide. My high school art teacher who is a brilliant wildlife artist told me of seeing one in Pinehurst in Orange County around the time I was in school in the 90s.

I also have reports from a trapper who claims to have caught one in Sour Lake and a camper who reported seeing one near Sam Rayburn reservoir.

The International Union on the Conservation of Nature shows them present through the state, but I have never seen one or even a game camera photo of one in Southeast Texas where I live.

The IUCN ringtail range map.

Until now.

On the Jan. 29 edition of my radio program “Moore Outdoors” I spoke about ringtails and mentioned these obscure sighting references.

A listener emailed me and said I should contact TPWD-licensed wildlife rehabber Pam Jordan.

She was in possession of a ringtail brought to her by a TPWD game warden that was caught in a live trap by a resident of Bridge City, near the shore of Texas’ northenmost bay Sabine Lake.

The mysterious Southeast Texas ringtail caught in a live trap is a large specimen.

Was this a ringtail brought from someone who hunts or perhaps owns land in the Texas Hill Country? It very well could be.

I have solicited wildlife reports, photographs and trail camera evidence for decades in the region and only have the above accounts with no hard proof.

Could it be a native remnant of a small, hidden population?

TPWD, IUCN and researchers at Texas Tech University show evidence it could be. The below map from Texas Tech’s Natural Science Research Laboratory shows a verified sighting in Jefferson County.

No one will ever know the origin but this mystery give us a great opportunity to learn of a beautiful, unique resident of Texas. Jordan said this animal will be released into a safe, undisclosed location and said people should not take animals from the wild home with them. Such incidents causes problems for the animal and often the people who caught them.

Jordan does an incredible job rehabilitating a variety of animals and you can help support her mission by clicking here.

She noted that ringtails were brought into caves by miners who had no conflict with them as they worked during the day when ringtails sleep. At night however they would awaken and prey on the rodents in the mines.

Since that sighting in my youth I have only spotted two other ringtails and both of them were in Menard County during the same timeframe. And I have spent a vast amount of time in ringtail country.

I was blessed to have had the opportunity to see the one Jordan is caring for at her facility.

A ringtail may not be a cat but they’re very bit as fascinating and mysterious as any of the wild cats that inhabit Texas. Seeing one today reminded me there are always surprises in the wild.

And some of them are downright beautiful.

Chester Moore

You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.

Mysterious Wildlife

An African Marsh Buck In TX

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Sightings of antelopes are not uncommon in Texas.

The blackbuck antelope of India is a common resident of exotic game ranches and they are fairly common free-ranging outside of high fences in the Texas Hill Country,

In fact, I recently photographed some near Kerrville.

African antelopes are rarer but kudu, lechwe and several gazelle species are found on some ranches.

Sitatunga (marsh buck) are a central African forest antelope that are extremely rare even on the many large, high fence game ranches I have been on over the years. In fact, I have never seen one.

Photo by Chester Moore

That’s why getting a Facebook message that one was hanging out around a residence just outside of Beaumont got me excited. My friend took a couple of photos with her cell phone at her residence and a relative did the research to determine it was indeed a sitatunga. I have kept her anonymous because the sighting was literally behind her house.

I set a Moultrie Mobile cam on the property and within a few hours got a photo of the beautiful antelope. The camera has been there for over a month and it never returned.

According to the Smithsonian National Zoo, sitatunga reside in the swamps, savannas, forests and forest clearings of central, eastern and parts of southern Africa, ranging from Cameroon and Central African Republic in the north to northern Botswana in the south.

It is theorized that sitatunga likely occurred alongside waterways throughout western and central Africa as well, but are no longer found in that region.

Hunting ranches in Texas have created a a thriving industry that produces large number of animals. Animals like the scimitar-horned oryy, blackbuck antelope and axis deer have been sent back to their native lands where they were endangered from these ranches.

A sitatunga hunt would demand anywhere from $10-12,000 according to sources I reached out to so this animal was either from a hunting ranch, a breeder or perhaps someone who enjoys keeping beautiful exotic hoofstock.

An official with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department said the animal was sighted six miles away two weeks before I got my game camera photo.

And a few days ago, I got this photo from reader Ben Broussard that was taken three weeks after mine and about eight miles away. Either it’s the same animal or there were multiple escapees. I’m betting on it being the same animal. Again, sitatunga are not a common exotic in Texas.

Ben Broussard submitted this game camera photo of what I assume is the same sitatunga around eight miles from the location of my photo.

I have reached out to several exotic owners in Southeast Texas to see if they had an escapee or if they knew anyone who did. Everyone was shocked there was a sitatunga in the area-whether it was behind a fence or free-ranging now.

I have written numerous times in recent years that animal enocunters in the United States have changed dramatically because of the introduction of exotics.

This sitatunga situation was an interesting surprise. It likely simply got out of a hole in a fence or escaped during the two major hurricanes that hit Southeast Texas in 2020.

I hope it makes its way back home but likely it will continue wandering.

Interestingly, this antelope known as a “marsh buck” in Africa is probably better suited for survival in our swampy habitat than most exotics.

Chester Moore

You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.

Mysterious Wildlife

Car-Sized Giant Catfish Below Dams?

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“Did you know there are giant catfish below the Toledo Bend dam?”

That was the question posed to me recently at one of my local speaking engagements.

“And they are so big divers are afraid to go down there and look at the dam. They say they are the size of Volkswagens!”

The author got to dive with the world record blue catfish nicknamed “Splash” at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, TX in 2005. He wanted to get the perspective of a diver encountering a record-sized catfish. People have asked what the tattoo is on his right shoulder. It’s Darth Vader. He’s a huge Star Wars fan.

This story has been told over and over throughout my life and is considered absolute face by man. I have heard it about Toledo Bend recently but also other lakes in the Southeast Texas area and actually throughout the South.

Here are a few points I would like to make about this local legend that has been brought to life again due to photos circulating on the Internet

The author with a Wels catfish caught in Spain’s Segra River.

#I have been investigating these stories since 2005 and have never spoken with anyone who has actually seen the catfish. It is always their brother-in-laws cousin or something.

#The largest catfish in North America are the blue and flathead both of which live at Toledo Bend and other reservoirs in the South. They can attain weights of over 130 pounds and I have no doubt there are specimens quite a bit larger. In my opinion this legend began with a diver seeing a record-sized catfish in murky water and then the story grew from there. I concluded this while diving with the world record blue catfish at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, TX.

#While fishing in Spain I heard a guide tell me the dam workers work in shark cages to protect themselves from the Wels. I have not confirmed that but it is certainly is interesting to consider. There are certainly giant catfish in Spain. I know because I caught one!

The subject came up because he had a massive scar on his back I noticed when he took his shirt off to get down into the water and help me land the massive fish you see in this photo.

He said he did the same thing for another client a few years earlier and slipped and let go of the fish and when he let go it bit him. Hard!

The author with a huge Wels catfish on his 2005 trip to Spain.

Have you ever heard of stories of giant catfish? Post them in the comments below.

Chester Moore

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Mysterious Wildlife

A Mexican wolf in TX? (Photo)

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Mexican Wolf In Texas

I’ll never forget staring into the eyes of a big male Mexican gray wolf.

Its piercing eyes reflected a wild lineage that roamed the Southwest until the white man moved in with guns, traps and poison.

This was early in my career and the animal resided at a captive breeding facility where remnants of the highly endangered subspecies were being bred for release into the wild.

I shot tons of photos but they were lost in Hurricane flood damage-along with many others.

Since that time there have been numerous releases in New Mexico and even pups born in the wild there.

So, when Jaclyn Booth sent me this photo I took notice because the animal looked very much like the wolves I had seen at the facility so many years ago.

The photo came through our “The Wildlife Journalist” Facebook and had no information on where it came from.

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Photo courtesy Jaclyn Booth

My thought was “Wow, thats a gray wolf, probably a Mexican gray wolf.”

I messaged her to find out what state the photo came from and when she said it came from her ranch in Hall County, TX I was in shock.

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The photo below is a coyote from the same ranch and in fact at different angles of the same log. Compare this coyote and the canid in the above photo.

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Photo courtesy Jaclyn Booth

Now compare with this one of a Mexican gray wolf taken at the Alameda Park Zoo below. Notice the extreme likeness.

mexican wolf zoo
Public Domain Photo

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Photo courtesy Jaclyn Booth

Wiped Out On Purpose

The Mexican gray wolf is indigenous to this part of the world but like all other representative of Canis lupus was wiped out due to government predator control and unregulated killing on ranches.

Is there a remnant pocket of these hailing from the captive breeding program in New Mexico? Or maybe a rogue wanderer?

It is possible but unlikely.

After all a gray wolf radio collared in Michigan was killed by a bowhunter in Missouri in 2001. That’s a much longer journey that New Mexico to Hall County, TX.

Is there a remnant pocket of Mexican gray wolves in North Texas and perhaps even in the Trans Pecos?

In 2013 I had a professional trapper who has trapped and killed thousands of coyotes tell me of seeing a Mexican gray wolf near Alpine, TX the year previous. He was adamant at what he saw.

Is there a possibility of having Mexican gray wolf-coyote hybrids (that maybe lean heavily on wolf appearance) in the region?

Absolutely. It has been proven that coyotes and gray wolves hybridize by numerous researchers.

I will be writing a lot about wild canids of the United States this year and will be posting photos, videos and research.

Are there Mexican wolves in Texas?

The jury is still out but on a ranch in Hall County there is definitely an animal that looks a whole lot like one.

More to come…

(To subscribe to The Wildlife Journalist blog enter your email at the top right of this page.)

Chester Moore, Jr. 

 

Mysterious Wildlife

Mystery Animal Photographed in Central Texas

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You never know what you’re going to see traveling through the Texas Hill Country at night. Sometimes you come across a true mystery animal.

Geoffrey Bennett submitted these photos (after posting on his Facebook) of an animal his brother saw and was able to capture these images of as it climbed a rock wall.

Exact location has not been given nor would we give it but it’s safe to say it is in the beautiful limestone-encrusted Edwards Plateau.

On the initial posts several people chimed in with thoughts including jaguarundi, ringtail and lemur.

It’s definitely not a ringtail or lemur.

Jaguarundi was my first thought at seeing the photo below but after seeing the next one in the series I am convinced this is a kinkajou (Potus flavus). These rainforest dwellers are the only member of the genus “Potos” and are sometimes called a “honey bear”.

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Photo courtesy Jeffrey Bennett

The tail is what tipped me off. Kinkajous have a prehensile (climbing/gripping able) tail and this one is curled up. I have a kinkajou at our Kingdom Zoo: Wildlife Center and his named is “Irwin”.

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Photo courtesy Jeffrey Bennett

His tail is always curled up.

Plus the body and head just look kinkajou and if you look close enough you can see what looks like a collar.

irwin
Our kinkajou “Irwin” taking a nap in his hide.

If this is a kinkajou, what is it doing in the Texas Hill Country?

They are common animals at zoos and wildlife parks and are not a rare pet. In fact, for those who like exotics they make a much smaller and generally safer pet than say a lion.

My suspicion this is someone’s pet that escaped.

What do you think of the identify of this cool-looking animal?

Post your comments below.

Have you seen anything like this? We’d love to see the photos.

We appreciate Mr. Bennett giving us access to these pics and sharing this unique encounter with us wildlife lovers.

(To subscribe to The Wildlife Journalist blog enter your email at the top right of this page.)

Chester Moore, Jr.

Mysterious Wildlife

Bobcats have tails!

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Bobcats have tails!

That might not seem worthy of the exclamation point there but it needs to be said emphatically.

Over the last year I have examined at least a dozen bobcat photos people thought were cougars because the tail was longer than they expected.

The video below shows a bobcat captured on a game camera by friends of mine in Orange County, TX.
This particular bobcat has a tail longer than just about any I have seen but there are many of them out there with tails close to this. Some have little powder puff looking tails but most stretch out 3-4 inches. This one is probably 8-9 inches in length.

Update: Video About Black Bobcats and Long-Tailed Bobcats

That is long for a bobcat but nearly as long as a cougar which has a tail nearly as long as the body.

I have no scientific way of estimation but I daresay 75 percent of alleged cougar sightings in the eastern half of the United States are bobcats.
I know for a fact there are cougars there too but bobcats are far more numerous and I know from personal experience how many people think they have a cougar photo but find out it is a bobcat instead.

This is no fault of their own. Wildlife identification studies are not a priority at schools and in fact game wardens even get very little wildlife identification education during their formal training.

I appreciate any and all game camera photos and if you have some you would like to have evaluated email chester@kingdomzoo.com.

Bobcats are one of my favorite animals and I have had the pleasure to work with them in captivity, photograph them on many occasions and have probably seen 200 plus in the wild.

In fact on a peace of property near the set of John Wayne’s “The Alamo” near Bracketville, TX I saw five bobcats in one day.
Seeing them is fairly common for me but I always rejoice knowing I caught a glimpse of one of America’s most successful predators.

Chester Moore

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Mysterious Wildlife

Blue Deer

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For years I have heard about strange whitetail deer that have a blue tint to their coats.
My father even reported seeing some of these deer on a hunting lease near San Saba, TX in the mid 1970s.
This of course was well before the era of cell phone cameras and game cameras so no photos were taken.

A reader sent in this photo of mysterious blue whitetails taken on his  game camera in an undisclosed location in the Pinewoods of East Texas.
Some parts look blue, others purple but this is not a an Adobe Photoshop rendering.
Have you seen any deer with unusual colors? If so e-mail wolf@wolfandlambmedia.com
We would love to see them.

Mysterious Wildlife

Chased by Chupacabra

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The dim moonlight illuminated the trees just enough to make out the edge of the forest. A strange sense of forebode overcame me as I gazed into the blackness.

As I neared a crossroads, something jumped out of the ditch and made its way through the tall grass. Standing about 20 inches at the shoulder, the creature had large, erect ears and pale, gray skin.
Perhaps, I had finally encountered the legendary “chupacabra”.

I have maintained the “chupacabras” seen on many video clips and photos shared on social media are coyotes or foxes with a very bad case of mange.

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The mysterious canine enshrouded in the shadows. (Photo by Chester Moore, Jr.)

However, as I pulled over, grabbed my flashlight and ran to the woods edge, my rational explanation wasn’t resonating. I was alone, without a gun, on a dark, country road and looking for a “chupacabra”.
To top things off my flashlight was dying and so was my cell phone.
Sounds like a good start for a horror movie, doesn’t it?
As I pressed toward the woodline, a nasty growl came my direction. Followed by aggressive barks, I could tell there was a canine not happy with my presence. I inched a little closer and could make out a set of blue eyes illuminated by my dim flashlight. A creepy silhouette of a thin animal with tall ears peaking from a behind the tree looking at me, hit my curiosity factor so I moved closer.
At this point, the animal moved and started barking again. Aggressive barks.
It was time for me to go. I may be curious but I am not stupid.
I returned this morning slowly cruising alone the road as a thin layer of mist on the ground began to dissipate.
And about 50 yards from where I left it the night before was the mysterious animal. I quickly shot a few photos with my cell phone as it stood silhouetted in the forest. I could only make out the shape until it moved into an open patch of light.
I could see that it was a dog (mutt) of some sort with short hair that was coming off in large patches. It even had a tiny collar on.
If coyotes and foxes make up the bulk of “chupacabra” sightings, now the domestic dog can join the ranks.
“Chupacabras” are not monsters. They are simply sick animals and in this case I have feeling it was a sick animal dumped off in the woods so the owners would not have to deal with it. Either that or it escaped from somewhere and made a long haul to this stretch of road.
I doubt that though as it hung around the same spot I saw it last night. That’s a sign of an abandoned dog.
I knew what I was looking at was a canine of some sort all along but how many people would be able to tell during a brief sighting under the moonlight?
In this case the “chupacabra” was more like Frankenstein’s monster than some sort of evil being from beyond as some bloggers claim. It’s circumstance was at least partially man-made and it was just doing what it had to do to stay alive.
In this case I was the like the angry mob that drove the monster to the windmill, only with a flashlight instead of a torch. I did however back off and let nature take its course.
After all, Frankenstein’s monster fought back and I had no desire to end up bitten by a chupacabra-one wearing a collar or not.
Chester Moore, Jr.