Exotic Animal Field Guide: Nonnative Hoofed Mammals in the United States

Exotics in the United States

Nilgai bull grazing on South Texas rangeland. Photo by William J. Sheffield, courtesy of the King Ranch, Texas. Exotics in the United States What animal looks like the combination of a horse and a cow with the beard of a turkey and short devil’s horns? Literally thousands of them live in South Texas alone, but you will not find these nilgai antelope in any field guide to native wildlife in the United States. From axis to zebra, an estimated 223,000 to 250,000 hoofed “exotics”—animals native to other places—live in the United States.1 This book features eighty different forms of the nearly one hundred hoofed foreign wildlife species, distinctive subspecies, and less familiar domestic animals that have been tried as exotics in the United States. Included are both common exotics (like blackbuck antelope and fallow deer) and notso -common exotics. Sometimes, the newer arrivals are called “super exotics,” especially if they are rare and large (like sable antelope and defassa waterbuck ). There are exotics on ranches, at safari parks, in wildlife preserves, and sometimes just beside the byroads of America. Most of these exotics belong to private individuals, although others inhabit public areas. Some are free-ranging . Wherever people have been involved with wildlife, keep a close watch for any of these foreign animals called exotics. 2 exotic animal field guide Definition of Exotic Just what is an exotic? Technically speaking, an exotic is any organism living outside its native area of distribution. The term implies that, wittingly or unwittingly , humans caused the translocation. The term often implies either naturalistic or less strictly managed conditions than found in zoos. Exotics include the house sparrows fondly remembered by nostalgic European immigrants and lovingly imported as a contribution toward beautification of the New World.2 Exotics also include water hyacinth plants from the Amazon clogging U.S. waterways after riding from lake to lake as fragments on boat engines. Exotics do not include species such as the cattle egret, which has been expanding its distribution across the United States after entering from the south on its own.3 Why Exotics Are Here Among the earliest exotics raisers in the newly declared United States was George Washington.4 In 1786, he procured his first “English deer” (presumably fallow deer) from Maryland breeder Benjamin Ogle. In 1787, Washington wrote to another Maryland owner, Richard Sprigg, commending him on the success of his deer importation and inquiring about obtaining a pair to add to the deer park at his Virginia estate. Here at Mount Vernon, the deer added a picturesque touch to the scenery. Other breeders probably concentrated more on production of venison for the table. These are two of the reasons many people today enjoy owning exotics: interest in the seemingly endless variety of animal life and utilization as a food animal in addition to our traditional livestock. The most widely recognized uses are live sale of brood stock and hunting. Hunting can be either commercial or just occasional by family or invited guests. Nevertheless, many properties have no hunting at all. The least recognized reason for keeping exotics is for conservation. The influx of African antelopes was a direct result of a consortium of ranchers from Texas and elsewhere . They had heard about serious wildlife declines in Africa and wanted to help. They formed a plan to safeguard as many species as possible against extinction by giving them safe places in the United States to live and rear their young.5, 6 In the 1960s, they acquired founder stock of twenty-two antelopes (twenty-one from Africa and one from Asia). This also benefited zoos, like the original recipient in San Antonio, by helping them expand their programs. Because laws to protect the United States from foreign diseases prevent imported cloven-hoofed individuals from being released directly, all the imports became zoo animals. After that, zoos and ranches alternated in ownership of the off- exotics in the united states 3 spring. Ranch-owned offspring not required to keep the zoo herds going could leave and start exotics herds on ranches. What ranch life can do for a species depends on a combination of factors. In addition to hardihood and reproductive potential, there are the human dimensions of access to brood stock, interest in the species, and perception as to suitability. Zoo-ranch contacts have run the whole spectrum from formally instituted arrangements...