Discover elusive Nilgai at King Ranch in South Texas

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The antelope appears on State Highway 77 on the purple morning and drifts an hour north of Brownsville in hoof-and-horn knots through the tall grass. Groups of tan females and deer calves graze on the brush. Blue-gray bulls snap their ears and stand still. Then headlights sweep by on the street and the animals’ huge shoulders explode in motion as they flee into the savannah.

The antelope is Nilgai, a heavy-shouldered, long-necked species that can reach 600 pounds and still run up to 30 miles per hour – or slightly faster than world record sprinter Usain Bolt. They are from India and Pakistan, so the sight of them grazing along the coastal meadows of South Texas seems inappropriate. But an estimated 30,000 Nilgai can now be found in wild herds from the outskirts of Corpus Christi to natural parks in the lower Rio Grande Valley more than 150 miles south. The vast majority of these Nilgai are descended from animals introduced at the legendary King Ranch in nearby Kleberg County.

In 1924, King Ranch manager Caesar Kleberg was deeply involved in a long-term restoration project for wildlife in his range. The King Ranch is a vast collection of land – at 825,000 acres, it is larger than Rhode Island. Kleberg wanted to restore native wildlife such as deer and turkeys to the ranch’s Norias division, 70 miles north of Brownsville. He worked with the San Diego Zoological Garden (now the San Diego Zoo) to bring Nilgai to the ranch.

According to Weston Koehler, King Ranch’s assistant area manager for wildlife operations, Kleberg’s reasons for this remain unclear. It could have been to provide his ranch workers with an alternative source of food, to strengthen the Nilgai populations outside of their homeland, or to increase the variety of large game for hunting. The animals initially struggled to gain a foothold on the ranch property, but additional releases of Nilgai from the zoo in 1941 helped greatly. They formed the core of the current herd, which Koehler estimates now number 15,000 animals.

“Our focus is on local game, but the Nilgai really add value to the ranch,” says Koehler. “We really like them, but all we know is that we have to manage the totals.”

With few natural predators and a fast breeding rate – females usually give birth to twins annually – the Nilgai populations were booming. Their success was due in part to the landscape of the King Ranch and the surrounding land: a patchwork of short-grass coastal prairie, white sand dunes, and long stretches of living oak forest, all of which were silent except for the rustling of leaves and carpets of bright green Guinea grass. For Nilgai, a large scrub antelope with a shy streak, it was paradise. But the Nilgai were not content to remain seated.

“They naturally began to spread to other ranches,” says Koehler. “Some high-fence ranches may have them in stock, but many of these ranches here got their Nilgai from the King Ranch.”

Nilgai were born to run around. In the early 2000s, according to David Hewitt, executive director of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, biologists equipped Nilgai with radio collars. They found that a Nilgai’s home can vary from a few thousand acres to over 70,000 acres. The animals sneak under cattle fences at will and push the lower wires up to create passages in the sandy loam. Nilgai with radio collars have sometimes settled right next to cities in South Texas, living in drainage ditches and grazing in fields and vacant lots.

By the 1980s, Nilgai had become a common sight in the region. The Gulf Coast residents got used to seeing them graze on the side of the road. “You would go to the coast and see herds of 20 to 30 here and up a mile or two and see 20 to 30 there,” says Joey Salazar, a longtime hunt guide at the King Ranch. “They would only look at you when you were driving past. Nobody shot them. “

It didn’t last. In the late 1980s, wildlife managers began to view the elusive Nilgai as a problem. The passages that Nilgai create by digging under fences are commonly used by native species – bobcats, deer, coyotes, spears – and are potentially a vector for the spread of wild boar and diseases that affect other animals.

Nilgai can also host Texas fever ticks, which transmit a disease that kills 90% of affected cattle. While any cattle bearing the tick will be immediately quarantined, it is next to impossible to contain Nilgai – and their far-reaching habits threaten to spread the disease outside of the safe zones in South Texas. In response to disease concerns and to prevent Nilgai from competing with native species, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Phytosanitary Inspection Service occasionally kills the Nilgai herd in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, which is about 120 miles south of King Ranch .

In the 1990s, hunters saw Nilgai, whose meat is known as the “Texas Antelope,” as an opportunity. Businesses like King Ranch have started offering hunting packages to trophy hunters that may require a special five-day exotic hunting license. “We harvest around 1,000 Nilgai a year between the commercial hunts we sell, the ranch owners, the employees and the tenants,” says Koehler. “We do about 400 commercial hunts a year.”

After decades in South Texas, the animals have left their mark on the ranchlands. The King Ranch staff have observed that they have a particular fondness for bushes like Hercules Club or Tickle Tongue and enjoy the green grasses along cattle tanks and natural water sources. (The King Ranch doesn’t provide them additional feed.) Nilgai often return to the same areas to dump themselves, and the resulting nutrient-rich piles (biologists call them “latrines”) can set up nurseries for any seeds that it through their Plants create digestive tracts.

Nilgai are also an abundant source of food. Their carcasses provide a feast for caracara birds and other native scavengers, and their newborns are occasionally carried away by coyotes. Once, while running a hunting party, Koehler caught a glimpse of a mountain lion – secret predators that slide back and forth between the ranchlands of southern Texas – and was trying to kill a deer-sized Nilgai calf. Exotic species like Nilgai are most strenuous when nothing is hunting them. This can cause their numbers to spiral out of control. Koehler’s cursory glance suggests that Nilgai are exposed to the same predatory attempts as native animals outside of the hunting rifle.

The long-term impact of Nilgai on the South Texas environment is uncertain. There are indications that the populations may even out under hunting pressure. They have also proven limited by the cold winters in the north and the extensive agricultural land and urban development near the Rio Grande. But it seems that Nilgai will stay here.

These creatures are made for the frontier areas: between private ranch land and public wilderness, between aliens and natives. They are shapes tied along the grassy edges before slipping under cattle fences and disappearing in the dark.

To see Nilgai, book a wildlife or bird watching tour at King Ranch as experienced guides provide the best opportunity to see them. To experience Nilgai unassisted, visit the open plains and wetlands of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in the early morning. Another option is to drive along US 77 between Corpus Christi and Brownsville at dusk, where Nilgai graze on the side of the road. There’s also the YO Ranch headquarters in the Hillsbrad, which has a number of exotic species.

King Ranch Visitor Center – 2205 SH 141 West, Kingsville. Book tours online at 361-592-8055; king-ranch.com

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