Cold Weather

[lwaters]

Anybody hear what the cold weather is doing to the Texas exotic game animals. I see the state is under winter storm warnings

 

[Trophyhunter01]

It will kill some of them. Blackbuck and nilgai don’t tolerate long cold spells that well. Not sure on other species but I have seen the effect on the two above. Would guess some of the African animals will have issues as well with temps in the single digits For a couple days.

 

[sgt_zim]

Corpus and most of south Texas will be back above freezing by Tuesday. That's where most of the nilgai are.

 

[JES Adventures]

My game ranch is about 90 miles North of Austin and the temps are already in single digits. My son Grant has been there the last couple of days feeding animals and busting ice off of troughs 3 X a day. I've game ranched for 28 years and this is the most severe cold front I have ever endured. I know we will lose Blackbuck, just wont know how many until next week. My Red Deer and Trans Caspian Urial herds are doing great, this weather doesn't seem to bother them much. We have been on a free choice cottonseed feed program since October so the pasture animals such as Axis, Aoudad, Scimitar and Whitetail should be in good enough shape to endure the weather. But, there will be some losses, its just an unfortunate part of the ranching business.

BTW - Grant told me "the reason Hell is Freezing over in Texas is because Presidents Day is tomorrow and Biden is our President"!

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

I talked to a friend who lives on a ranch north of Comfort. They had already picked up 11 dead Blackbuck as of this morning. Other animals are doing ok he said.

 

[Vashper]

Hello to Albert Gore and Greta Thunberg!
Practice shows that many exotic species can withstand a temperate climate, provided there is sufficient food. The consumption of which sometimes increases several times compared to normal conditions. That is, the limiting factor is the snow cover. For example, African ostriches do well on farms in Eastern Europe. Strictly speaking, Homo sapiens is also an exotic species. Of course, all this depends on the type, probably, the equatorial breeds, despite the wool, can suffer.

 

[sgt_zim]

Richmond, Texas this morning (SW of Houston)

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Louisiana pretending it's Montana today, Feb 15, 2021

 

[BRICKBURN]

Welcome to the club guys!

 

[Vashper]

It is terrible that animals die, because they do not understand what is happening and you can not explain to them how to survive properly. I once, a long time ago, was in the circle of "young naturalists" at the zoo. The minister told us that in winter the ungulates should have a bed of straw and water to drink (not everyone knows how to eat snow), and then they normally tolerate the cold.
In Ukraine, and it is quite cold there, there is an Ascania farm, where some antelopes are kept in the open air. For example, white-tailed wildebeest grow undercoat. But eland antelopes have no undercoat, they are cold, they are kept in an aviary in winter at a temperature of not less than +5C.
How many days will it be in Texas? It looks impressive.
The strange thing is that it's not very hot in the Southern Hemisphere right now, judging by the climate map, and it's the middle of summer there.

 

[CJW]

This is one heck of a weather system. We've gone from in my opinion a tame and mild winter following a very mild winter last year to some of the coldest temps we've had since I moved up here. -35 at the house and town was reporting -37 this morning.

 

[C.W. Richter]

A barn and Chow work wonderfully in such cases as Farmers have been dealing with up North for centuries.

 

[Vashper]

A barn and Chow work wonderfully

and for people too

 

[sgt_zim]

we were without electricity from Monday about 0800 until last night about 2230. Internet finally came back up about 45 minutes ago