Blood and Beauty on a Texas Exotic-Game Ranch

[Judi Lynn]

By MANNY FERNANDEZ OCT. 19, 2017


UVALDE, Tex. — On a ranch at the southwestern edge of the Texas Hill Country, a hunting guide spotted her cooling off in the shade: an African reticulated giraffe. Such is the curious state of modern Texas ranching, that a giraffe among the oak and the mesquite is an everyday sort of thing.

“That’s Buttercup,” said the guide, Buck Watson, 54.

In a place of rare creatures, Buttercup is among the rarest; she is off limits to hunters at the Ox Ranch. Not so the African bongo antelope, one of the world’s heaviest and most striking spiral-horned antelopes, which roams the same countryside as Buttercup. The price to kill a bongo at the Ox Ranch is $35,000.

Himalayan tahrs, wild goats with a bushy lion-style mane, are far cheaper. The trophy fee, or kill fee, to shoot one is $7,500. An Arabian oryx is $9,500; a sitatunga antelope, $12,000; and a black wildebeest, $15,000.

More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/us/exotic-hunting-texas-ranch.html

[Glorfindel]

1. Fascinating. There are elements of it I find abhorrent, but the same can be said for hunting

white-tailed deer here in southern Appalachia. If the only way to save an endangered species is to breed it in captivity and occasionally sacrifice one of the herd, I think it's not such a bad thing. Especially if the hunters themselves finance the species' recovery. I think the remarkable success of Ducks Unlimited speaks for itself. Full disclosure: I haven't hunted anything in many, many years, but I will shoot a poisonous snake if I spot one in the yard. Again, Judy Lynn, thanks so much for the post, which at least is bound to provoke some spirited and thoughtful debate.

[NickB79]

2. In their native habitat, they are going extinct

From habitat destruction (farming and logging) and poachers.

Here they have stable breeding populations, managed for genetics and health. In 20 years, these game farms and zoos will hold the last surviving members of many of these species as we devour this planet like locusts.

Don't like the fact they pay for the land and management with hunting proceeds? Pass the hat and pony up millions of dollars in donations, or elect officials that will raise taxes to do so.

[alarimer]

3. Someone introduced nilgai (an Indian antelope) into South Texas.

Now there is a viable, reproducing population in the wild. I have no idea how that impacts local habitats for other things. So sometimes these things can have other, unintended consequences.

I guess it's better to hunt them on ranches in Texas than in Africa or Asia where they are endangered, but I feel like this can also fuel the illegal trade in exotic animal parts by creating demand that poachers in Africa or Asia will exploit.

And there is the fact that exotic animals can have negative effects on local habitats. In some cases, some very rare habitats exist only on private lands. How do these animals affect those areas? It can't be good.