Photos in the September 2010 issue |
Video clips from Texas Parks & Wildlife accompany some of the stories on this website — to see even more videos, visit TPWD’s YouTube channel |
This Month's Features
2010 Fall Hunting Forecast
Post-drought rain brings increase in game populations and happy hunters.
By John Jefferson
We forget so easily. Looking back, the devastating two-year drought that ended last fall is now but a distant memory. Derrick Wolter, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife biologist in Bell, Coryell and Lampasas counties, recalled it this way: “To say most of 2008 and 2009 were dry would be an understatement.” Most of Texas was like talc, and nothing grows in powder. The drought’s negative effects on most wildlife have now been erased by seasons of nourishing rain, and except for quail and turkeys, the hunting prospects are excellent. Last season, after the rains came, conditions became so lush that deer didn’t come to feeders. The resulting harvest was down. Many bucks survived.
Populations are rebounding, and body conditions and antlers have improved. The downside that biologist Ryan Schmidt, working Edwards and Val Verde counties, sees is that there could be a bumper fawn crop added to the deer carried over from last year, leading to acute overpopulation. Here’s what the TPWD wildlife biologists say about hunting prospects.
When Pigs and People Collide
An explosion in the feral hog population causes problems on ranches and in suburbia.
By Russell A. Graves
A tough winter left the mesquite trees barren of leaves and the grass a dormant shade of brittle brown. From a helicopter, the landscape is unremarkable, save for the occasional canyon that scours through the rust-red dirt of the Texas Rolling Plains. A hundred feet beneath us, the land slipping past is mostly a contiguous patchwork of brush, cactus and grass. Conspicuously, though, large swatches of freshly turned earth break the topographical monotony. This ranch is overrun with feral hogs.
“From the ground, you can see where the hogs root,” explains pilot Luke Boedeker as he checks the integrated GPS unit to make sure that we’re within the ranch boundaries. “But once you get in the air, it’s pretty amazing how much ground they actually tear up.”
The Pronghorn Prognosis
These fleet plains animals have been hit by sharp declines in numbers, and biologists are on the lookout for a culprit.
By Steve Lightfoot
Pronghorn antelope use vision and speed to elude predators, but in recent years have been unable to outrun an unseen enemy that has contributed to alarming population declines in Texas. Since estimates of about 17,000 animals in the Trans-Pecos region in 1987, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists say pronghorn numbers have continued to plummet, with this majestic plains animal now numbering about 5,000 in that region.
“Pronghorn are a unique and iconic species of our native grasslands; their presence symbolizes healthy grassland ecosystems and perseverance,” says Shawn Gray, TPWD pronghorn program leader.
Keep Texas Wild (PDF)
The Wild Side of the Family
Stories Worth Viewing (again) |
