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Texas Canyon Ranch lost more than 2,000 of its 4,000 Axis deer population and about 60 percent of its Black Buck antelope population, according to a release from the ranch.Mike Powles/Getty Images
The snowstorm heavily impacted the wildlife at a Texas ranch in Sonora, about 170 miles northwest of San Antonio.
Texas Canyon Ranch lost more than 2,000 of its 4,000 Axis deer population and about 60 percent of its Black Buck antelope population, according to a release from the ranch.
The ranch stated it experienced animal losses and infrastructure damage so severe it has been forced to cancel most scheduled hunting for the rest of the year. Only premier hunts will be offered, allowing one or two hunters at a time with a private guide and a limited harvest.
Impact of winter storm on Texas exotic game ranches still being weighed
Executive Director of Wildlife Exotic Association anticipating at least $250 million in losses for industry
Garrett Hottle
and last updated 2021-03-06 18:01:49-05
WACO, TX â The Exotic Game Ranching is still calculating the losses suffered from February s unprecedented string of storms, according to Charly Seale of the Exotic Wildlife Association. We sent out a mortality survey, and lots of them are still coming back in, Seale said. We don t have a perfect handle yet, but in what we re talking about, it s going to be at least $250 million to $350 million in losses.
While people suffered and died in the now legendary Texas deep freeze of February 2021, the exotic animals of Texas Canyon Ranch were also dealt a severe .
Axis deer, native to the Indian subcontinent, were introduced to the Hill Country of Texas in 1932 as a game meat.
Wolfgang Kaehler/Alamy
The spotted fawn was leaning against the screen door of Daniel Oppenheimer’s back porch near Luckenbach. Oppenheimer found it when he ventured outside on the first morning of last week’s record freeze. The fawn had died in the night.
Oppenheimer’s power, water, and Internet would not be restored for several days. With little else to do, he wandered the land with his dog. He counted thirteen more deer that week. They died under Ashe juniper trees, in a barn, under a carport, in wide-open fields. All were axis, a white-spotted deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. “It was awful watching these animals fall apart over several days,” said Oppenheimer, who works for the Hill Country Alliance, a conservation group.