Comments on: Addax to Zebras: Mungall’s Exotic Animal Field Guide

By: schreiberosa

schreiberosa — Thu, 01 May 2008 03:17:46 +0000

Elizabeth Cary Mungall co-wrote with William J. Sheffield, copyright 1994, a more detailed work entitled Exotics on the Range: The Texas Example, along these same lines. It was published by the Texas A&M University Press. Included are maps of Texas broken into counties showing the then-reported distribution of the exotic hoofed livestock. It is a large format book, 265 pages long, with some color pages illustrating the exotics as well as some black & white photos. It covers both the animals' natural history, as well as other topics such as hybridization of exotic species (zebra species hybrids, for example) as well as hybrids between exotics and domestic livestock, the commercial hunting of these exotics and so forth. It is quite a book with lots of detailed information in it.

By: gkingdano

gkingdano — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:55:22 +0000

I also had a recent trauma (car accident - almost lost arm). While recovering I decided to go to the zoo (I am a animal person). The day turned out to be one of the most tranquil and life refocusing days in many many years. I spent about one hour just sitting and watching the meercats watching me. I still look back to that day (a year ago) and plan to go again by myself again and not wait another 40 years.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:44:12 +0000

Yep, that’s what they looked like. The markhors, I mean. The males were really big, maybe the size of an average Shetland pony (though maybe not as heavy), and they had long, flowing beards and lots of shaggy hair in sort of a mane along their necks and bellies, and huge spiraling horns. I used to see a small flI think that they were imported by some coal baron about a century ago for sport hunting, at least that is the story, and then they either escaped or were abandoned and went wild. ock of them along US Rt 52 in the cliffs created by the road cut.

When the Hatfield-McCoy ATV trails were in the planning stage, some folks thought that the markhors should be destroyed since they are not native. I thought that was ridiculous, because they had naturalized and become established, and they were not invasive at all. They had lived there for so long that some people thought they were part of the native fauna. As I recall there was a lot of outcry against destroying them, even though they are not native, because they are endangered. There was talk of trying to capture and relocate them. I do not know what the final resolution was, and I can’t find anyone who does.

My guess is that they were killed. I have not seen any for about ten or fifteen years, and I’m over that way at least two or three times a month. I used to see them almost evey time I passed through there.

By: planettom

planettom — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:34:29 +0000

Sounds like a great field guide to have. A good friend of mine used to be a zookeeper of large mammals and hoof-stock at the Houston Zoo, I will be sure to pass along the information on the book to him. Some friends of mine actually have some of the blackbuck antelope and fallow deer on their property out in Leaky (lay-kee), Texas. Beautiful animals. There is also a "buffalo farm" of sorts out IH-10 west of Houston, the name escapes me; it also appears to have antelope, at least from what I can tell driving by at high speed. I have passed it several times and I hope to be able to stop by one of these days to take a closer look. Thanks for the info on the book!

By: kittenz

kittenz — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:50:33 +0000

For years there was a breeding population of markhors, a type of wild goat, that lived in the cliffs near Delbarton, WV (about 20 miles from my home). I often saw them and they were local "celebrities." I have not seen any in a long time. There was talk of destroying them since they were nonnative; I don't know if that was done.