Tag Archives: nilgai

Higher Calling Wildlife

Coming Freeze Event Could Seriously Impact Texas Wildlife

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As Texas braces for another Arctic blast, that will possibly put up to five inches of snow along the Interstate 10 corridor in Southeast Texas, it’s important to recognize the catastrophic toll that past freezes have taken on the state’s wildlife.

During the 2021 freeze, the devastation was staggering: millions of fish perished, including massive numbers of spotted seatrout along the Texas coast.

The popular species that is hugely important to the sportfishing industry, suffered widespread mortality as frigid temperatures plummeted water temperatures below their survival threshold.

One of the many giant trout that died in the 2021 freee.

A Historic Reminder: Lessons from the 2021 Freeze

The February 2021 freeze demonstrated the fragility of Texas’s diverse wildlife when exposed to prolonged, extreme cold. Over 3.8 million fish, spanning 60 species, were lost along the coast. Among them, speckled trout-aka spotted seatrout—the most popular sportfish on the Gulf Coast.

*Check out this story from the 2021 freeze about a weird wild boar that showed up in my neighborhood.

Tarpon were also impacted as many juveniles were found floating in places like Port O’Connor and Rockport.

axis deer
Axis deer were hit hard on some ranches in 2021. TPWD Photo Ryan Schmitt

Other Wildlife at Risk

Exotic species such as nilgai antelope, blackbuck, and axis deer—common on Texas ranches—were particularly vulnerable due to their low tolerance for temperatures like those being forecasted. Large numbers perished in South Texas, leaving a serious impact on local ecosystems.

I’m hoping this isn’t going to be as bad as 2021. The Texas Coast in particular doesn’t need another hit like that.

Chester Moore

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Freeze kills Texas Antelopes

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The record-setting freeze that hit Texas over the last week has devasted two species of well-established non-indegenous antelope species in several areas.

The nilgai antelope, a native of India and Pakistan has been free-ranging along the Lower Coast from around Baffin Bay to the Mexico line for more than 80 years.

These very large antelope are notoriously susceptible to extreme cold and we have received a report of more than a dozen dead nilgai found on one eight mile stretch of road with others standing around in very uncharacteristic fashion.

© Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA

It’s hard to get in-depth reports at the moment with power outages, etc. especially since the majority of nilgai live on two of Texas’ largest private ranches, the King and Kenedy but there is historical precedence.

According to officials with the Texas Tech Natural Science Research Library, a past freeze put a huge hit on the species.

During the severe winter of 1972–1973, 1,400 of 3,300 nilgai (estimated population at the time) were killed by the weather in southern Texas. This die-off was exacerbated by previous brush clearing, which resulted in forage loss and increased competition with livestock and other wildlife.

The much smaller blackbuck antelope is a more widespread species and while there are free-ranging populations in the Edwards Plateau, most live behind game proof fences.

Also from India and Pakistan, they are not the most cold tolerant of animals and there are numerous photos floating around social media of large numbers of blackbuck as well as some axis deer dead on ranches.

The blackbuck antelope. (Public Domain Photo)

We will have more on the impact on these animals that have become an important part of the Texas outdoors economy and are highly valued for their meat (especially nilgai) and revered by sportsmen.

If you have any photos, videos or reports of dead wildlife in Texas email chester@chestermoore.com.

Chester Moore

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