I don't have much insight to add to this collection of images. I find them sad, but I think it's important to preserve them here nonetheless.
Posts published in “Animals”
The grizzly bears’ historical range runs from Alaska through Texas and into Northern Mexico, but there is only one recorded instance of a grizzly actually killed in Texas.
An unflattering tale about Joseph Magoffin, the fourth mayor of El Paso, and his encounter with two jaguars on the Nueces River.
I was recently turned on to an article in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal about a fascinating plains wolf behavior reported by early Texas cowboys.
This report of an “ocelot” from the Statesman seems to be a case of mistaken identity.
There is a small note in the "Biological Survey of Texas" about jaguars near the mouth of the Pecos that I thought should be included here.
Bears were once so plentiful in Texas that their fat and meat were common fare on the tables of early Texans. I found a couple…
The millinery (hat feather) trade almost wiped out shorebirds in the 1800s, but I recently discovered an article that revealed another shocking attack on bird populations from the period.
In 1890, Bull Creek was a popular destination but a much wilder place.
The Hill Country used to be one of the centers of the Texas bear trade. This report of a black bear near Bouldin Creek in South Austin is one of the earliest records I can find in the news.
This account of the mass slaughter of plains bison herds near the Republican River in Kansas was reprinted in the Austin American Statesman from the Denver Post in 1874.
An interesting story about a large jaguar that was shot in San Pedro Park by the park manager.
One of the jaguars referred to by Vernon Bailey in his "Biological Survey of Texas" was reported killed on the Like Oak Peninsula in 1858.
A jaguar account from 1847 about an encounter on the Bernard River in Brazoria County.
This except from an 1886 article puts ocelots, bison and longhorns in east central Texas in the early 19th century.