Exotics

Exotic

The true definition of an exotic animal is any critter that has been transplanted from its native range and habitat into an area to which it is not native. That covers a pretty wide swath from what we now call “invasive species” like the Asian carp to a highly lauded game species like the ring-necked pheasant that today seems as American as Mom and apple pie. In North America, the most common and widespread exotic big game is the wild hog. There were no true porcine species in North America before pigs were brought here by Europeans in the 1500s. Depending on who you consult, the wild hog is either a respected game animal or just a vastly overpopulated invasive species.

In North America, Texas is the epicenter of exotic big game hunting. Here, exotics can be hunted both free-ranging and behind high fences on game ranches. On these ranches, it’s possible to hunt nearly any big game species from around the world as an exotic. Some ranches even include quality hunts (both high fence and low fence) for “exotic” North American game like elk and bison. These species are “exotic” to Texas, at least as far as their modern day range is concerned.

As for high-fence hunts, we’ll focus on the most common Texas exotics. These include black buck, aoudad, other species of small sheep like the Mouflon, sika deer, fallow deer, and Axis deer. Wild hogs are also prevalent on many of these ranches, but based on the high popularity of hunting them, they have their own profile here on OutfittersRating.com.

In Texas, there are also two foreign exotic species that have really “gone wild” and can be hunted as true, free ranging game animals. These are the aoudad in the mountainous and desert terrain of West Texas along the Rio Grande River, and the nilgai antelope which runs wild on the huge ranches of southeast Texas along the Gulf Coast.

Anyone who has hunted free ranging aoudad and/or nilgai will tell you these animals have adapted well to their new homelands over the decades they’ve inhabited these ranges. A hunt for either species is truly a challenge, and taking a trophy of either is a hunting accomplishment worth adding to your bucket list of big game adventures.

Exotic Facts

While the common exotics in Texas include antelope, sheep, and deer species, the one thing they all have in common is they were brought to North America from somewhere else. So, we’ll briefly touch on the heritage of each one and the basic characteristics of the animals. That way when you encounter them, you’ll be able to confidently say, “There goes a …”

Aoudad (Barbary Sheep) – In Texas, aoudad are the “crossover” species. While widely available on high-fence game ranches, there is also ample hunting available of free range aoudad on low-fence ranches and even some public hunting areas in West Texas ranging from El Paso all the way down to Big Bend country. Native to northern Africa, the aoudad is rare there today. It is much more plentiful in North America and in Europe, particularly Spain.

Aoudad are desert nomads. They travel a great deal. Where free-ranging, bands can roam terrain in a an area covering scores of miles.

The aoudad or Barbary sheep is a stoutly built animal, well-adapted to the rugged terrain in which it lives. A big ram can top 300 pounds while ewes are much smaller, weighing in at less than 200 pounds. The coat is almost strawberry blonde on younger animals, darkening with age, especially on the rams. However, when you’re spotting aoudad, many times their color is the giveaway. It just doesn’t quite look like anything else in the terrain.

Despite the heat and dry conditions of their habitat, aoudad can basically survive on the moisture they obtain from their food, which includes many forms of cactus. However, if water is available, aoudad will drink and wallow. This makes the vicinity of stock tanks an important place to look for aoudad when hunting them.

Aoudad rams have heavy, long, sweeping horns that curve up and back, but don’t ever take on the true curl of many other sheep species. Rams grow a mane that runs from the chin down the neck and across the front of the legs to the hooves. These are called “chaps” and are highly prized in beautiful taxidermy work on trophy rams.

Mouflon Sheep – Mouflon sheep (and the various color phases/variations given other names) are direct wild ancestors of the modern domestic sheep. They are smaller than many other wild sheep species with rams seldom weighing much more than 100 pounds or ewes more than 70. They are short-haired with coats that are multi-colored including dark dorsal stripes and lighter colored saddle patches. Mouflon ram’s horns are heavy for the size of the animal and curl around and out as is the form traditionally thought of in wild sheep.

The Mouflon is native to what’s commonly called “the Middle East” including Iraq and Iran. As an introduced species, Mouflon are common in much of Europe, and now Texas and elsewhere in North America including the islands of Hawaii.

Sika Deer – This species is more accurately called “sika” as this is the Japanese word for deer. To call it the Sika deer is to say, “Deer deer.” It is historically native to far eastern Asia and Japan.

The sika is one of the few deer species that does not lose its spots upon reaching maturity, with variations in color ranging from dark brown to black. Stags range up to nearly 300 pounds at maturity and does about 125 pounds. They are somewhat closely related to the European red stag. The antler of the Sika stags are upright and heavy -- normally with just a single tine on each side about half way up the antler. The antler tops are usually forked. During the rut, the stags grow a distinctive mane below their necks much like the red stag.

In addition to becoming a game ranch staple, sika have established free-ranging populations in Maryland where they can be hunted as a fair chase big game species.

Fallow Deer – The fallow deer was originally native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is an animal about the size and build of a North American white-tailed deer, though trending slightly larger than many whitetail subspecies. Fallow bucks top out at about 225 pounds with mature does reaching about 135 pounds. The bucks grow large, palmated antlers.

Fallow deer can be seen in a variety of colors. The most common is a chestnut color coat with light spotting in summer and darker without spots in the winter. There’s a color called “menil” in which the spots are distinct white both in summer and winter coats. There’s a black coat phase with no light color patch or spots. And there’s a white to cream color that’s not albino as these fallow deer have dark eyes and no spots.

In addition to being a game ranch staple, fallow deer have established wild populations in a number of other states where they can be hunted on special permit as a fair chase big game animal.

Axis Deer – The Axis deer is native to the Indian region of Asia including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Pakistan where it is commonly know as the chital or cheetal. The axis’ coat is a light tan or fawn color with distinct white spots (much like a whitetail fawn) throughout the year. They are approximately the same body size as midsize whitetails with males topping out in the 200-pound range and females (called hinds) about 130 pounds. The racks on the stags are tall and heavy. They are usually formed of one main beam going almost straight up with a pronounced brow tine down low and a large fork at the top.

In North America, axis deer were first introduced to Hawaii where there is a substantial wild population these days. In Texas today, the axis deer is a game ranch staple exotic, and enough have escaped over time, so there are feral populations in a large number of counties in the Edwards Plateau and Hill Country regions.

Axis deer are unique in the fact that they don’t lose their antlers based on the season. The species doesn’t have a set rutting season, so young can be born at any time of the year, meaning females can come into estrous at any time. Stags with hard antlers are dominant over those in velvet and will handle the breeding of the estrous females at that time. It’s reported that stags will lose their horns on or very close to their precise birth date each year. This characteristic makes them an attractive species for game ranch hunting which can take place year round as there are always hard antlered stags in the herd.

Blackbuck – The blackbuck antelope is native to the subcontinent of India where it has played an important role in the culture and royalty of that region for thousands of years. However, it is classified as endangered in this region today, though it thrives on ranches in Texas where it was introduced some time ago.

Blackbuck are small animals. Males seldom exceed 75 pounds live weight and females seldom grow to more than 50 pounds. The males have unique spiraling, ringed horns while females have none. The coloration of males changes seasonally, but they are most known for their dark brown, jet black and stark white winter coloring. Females are light tan and white year round. They are extremely fast animals built for life on the plains. They have been clocked at speeds of 50 mph for short bursts.

A blackbuck ram with horns as long as 30 inches or more and 3-4 spiral turns, plus its stark contrasting color scheme makes a tremendous trophy, particularly in an upright, pedestal style mount.

Nilgai – The first impression of many hunters who see a nilgai antelope for the first time is that it’s an animal built from “spare parts” of other animals. It has the long-legged, rearward sloping body characteristic of a giraffe. It has a somewhat horse-shaped head with small horns that seldom reach much more than 12 inches in length, that almost look as if they could have come from some kind of goat. They have a rope-ish tail, and bulls have black beards on their necks that would look at home on a turkey gobbler. This description may not sound like that of a handsome animal, but in slate gray and black with sharply contrasting white highlights, a nilgai bull is indeed a beautiful creature.

Since nilgai is pronounced “nill-GIE”, the cows are sometimes jokingly referred to as “nil-GALs”. They are smaller and have a more reddish, tan coloration as do the calves. Cows are also much smaller, weighing in the 300-400 pound range, where a big bull can go 800-900 pounds.

Nilgai are native to India, but were brought to Texas in the 1930s with the plan of domesticating them as a source of extremely low cholesterol meat. However, after evolving as prey for tigers in their native land, nilgai proved impossible to domesticate, so the imported animals went wild on the huge ranches along the southern Texas gulf coast.

These animals, particularly mature bulls, are extremely wary and flighty. They run almost without provocation. Stalking within range of a trophy bull is a true hunting accomplishment. The bulls are stoutly built animals that have extremely thick hide covering their shoulders and vitals areas. They require magnum performance from firearms and archery gear as well as perfectly placed shots. The home terrain and tenacity of the nilgai make trailing a wounded animal a very low percentage task.

Hunting Exotics

Hunted on game ranches, exotics are generally pursued either from blinds set up at feeding locations or on safari-style hunts in which vehicles are used to cover ground to spot the animals. Then, as the situation warrants, the shot is taken from the high rack in the back of the truck, or the hunter and guide leave the truck to make the final stalk on foot.

In hunting free-ranging aoudad and nilgai, it’s essential to cover lots of ground to find the animals in the huge Texas terrain they inhabit. Vehicles are used to move from glassing location to glassing location. When animals are spotted, the stalk usually proceeds on foot from that point. Free-range aoudad rams and nilgai bulls are extremely wary and skittish animals that require all of the stalking skill of the wariest whitetail or elk. Particularly in the open desert, mountain terrain in which aoudad live, shots can range out to several hundred yards.

Stalking within rifle or bow range of any exotic species requires careful attention to the wind as all of these animals are naturally adverse to contact with humans and will spook if they catch your scent. Even in game ranch settings, properly managed exotics maintain their natural wariness of humans.

Good binoculars and spotting scope are critical in locating and judging the trophy quality of exotics, particularly free-ranging aoudad and nilgai. Aoudad, in particular, offer a true wild sheep hunting experience, which depends on many, many hours of glassing.

In Texas, and many other places, exotics are not considered true “game animals” so licenses are generally sold over the counter and are easy and inexpensive to acquire even for non-resident hunters. This non-game status also makes exotics available for year round hunting opportunities in many places.

Exotics Hunting Outfitters

Since the vast majority of exotics range on private land -- whether behind high fence or low fence -- enlisting the service of an outfitter is essential to gaining access to any of these incredible game animals. Quality of game ranches as well as free-range hunting services varies as widely as any other type of hunting outfitters specializing in native game – perhaps even more.

Services provided range from daily access/trophy fees for hunting on your own to fully-guided and outfitted hunts including luxury accommodations and gourmet meals as well as entertainment for non-hunters that can accompany the group. Exotics are also offered as added hunting opportunity on many Texas whitetail hunting operations.

OutfittersRating.com is the best resource to help you sort through the many options for hunting exotics in North America and around the world.