Is there Feral goat in the states
- Thread starter Buzzkill
- Start date
It is post like this one and all the replies that make this site one of my favorites to visit. One can learn something new everyday if he or she keeps their eyes open. My apolgies for hijacking the thread a bit, and though I am not familiar with feral goats(until tonight) on the Hawaiian islands I have watched a show where the guide and client were actually hunting cattle/bison/buffalos????. These critters were wild and if I recall correctly the bulls were more than willing to attack you before you could attack them if given the chance. I am not joking either these things were bada$$es. For some reason I really thing these were some sort of feral cattle breed. Can anyone fill in the blanks (DoubleNaughtSpy) for me?
We hunt em in west TX. A friends family had a bunch get out 10 or so yrs ago, so did neighbors. Years of freedom and cross breeding but most retain breed characteristics. We mostly see Boar and Spanish but there is some Angora. They are extreemly whiley and a good challenge.
~z
~z
Wild Cattle
GLK,
You are correct. If I remember, the wild cattle in Hawaii were brought there in the late 1700's by either Cook or Vancouver, don't remember which. They were gifts for King Kamehameha. I too saw a hunting show on them one time, maybe 10 years ago. The beasts were enormous too.
GLK,
You are correct. If I remember, the wild cattle in Hawaii were brought there in the late 1700's by either Cook or Vancouver, don't remember which. They were gifts for King Kamehameha. I too saw a hunting show on them one time, maybe 10 years ago. The beasts were enormous too.
I used to hunt in the Big Thicket area in SE Texas - there were feral cattle in there, supremely wild and the bulls were very agressive. We could have killed them, but we never did, it just didn't seem right for some reason.
Can you imagine what it must have been like to run afoul of one of the wild longhorns back in the day? There are several places around here that have longhorn cattle and when you see one of those monsters you develop an instant and genuine respect for the cowboys who rounded up wild ones and drove them to Kansas. Those were MEN!
Can you imagine what it must have been like to run afoul of one of the wild longhorns back in the day? There are several places around here that have longhorn cattle and when you see one of those monsters you develop an instant and genuine respect for the cowboys who rounded up wild ones and drove them to Kansas. Those were MEN!
Capt. Charlie
Moderator Emeritus
Hey Butch50! Back in the late 70's, I did a 6 month stint at Big Thicket as a park ranger. NPS transfered me there temporarily for a manpower shortage. As I remember, NPS wasn't real popular around there then. They established it as a preserve for the Red Wolf, and later found out they were a day late and a dollar short. The Red Wolf was already extinct in the wild by then 
. I lived in Woodville, in Tyler County, and worked the Big Sandy area. Just wondering what it looks like today.
. I lived in Woodville, in Tyler County, and worked the Big Sandy area. Just wondering what it looks like today.As I recall where we hunted was not too far from woodville, near a historic place called Fort Teran where the Mexican had a fort on the river. I think it was the Mexicans. Do you know the place?
This would have been in the 77 to 80 era. Believe it or not but there was at least one Red Wolf still in there then, we saw his tracks several times and then one foggy morning we saw him standing in a logging road. Magnificent. I had no idea that there had been a program to help them out. None of us ever thought of trying to hunt him, he was way too cool.
At the time that we were there it was of course thick pine forest with the occasional meadow and some clear cut areas. The fire ants had moved in real bad though and became so bad that you almost couldn't sit down anywhere. Feral hogs were just getting started good in there too. We saw a few but not many, but I bet they got real thick in there later.
This would have been in the 77 to 80 era. Believe it or not but there was at least one Red Wolf still in there then, we saw his tracks several times and then one foggy morning we saw him standing in a logging road. Magnificent. I had no idea that there had been a program to help them out. None of us ever thought of trying to hunt him, he was way too cool.
At the time that we were there it was of course thick pine forest with the occasional meadow and some clear cut areas. The fire ants had moved in real bad though and became so bad that you almost couldn't sit down anywhere. Feral hogs were just getting started good in there too. We saw a few but not many, but I bet they got real thick in there later.
Animals
I live in the northern part of the Big Thicket, still pretty big and definately thick, parts of my 2.5 acres are still to thick for me to get into, and I like it that way.
Feral hogs and fire ants are in control of much of the country, do not even think of sitting on the ground, carry a shooting stick or 5 gal. bucket with a swivel seat to still hunt, feral hogs are tearing up much of Texas, places such as Aransas Wildlife refuge , a beach sand overgrown with brush area, appear to be a testing ground for 2' wide bulldozers , some ruts are 18" deep, if the 12-14' gators did not take a few and there was not a short bow season, the place would likely have disappeared by now, just plowed under.
Don
I live in the northern part of the Big Thicket, still pretty big and definately thick, parts of my 2.5 acres are still to thick for me to get into, and I like it that way.
Feral hogs and fire ants are in control of much of the country, do not even think of sitting on the ground, carry a shooting stick or 5 gal. bucket with a swivel seat to still hunt, feral hogs are tearing up much of Texas, places such as Aransas Wildlife refuge , a beach sand overgrown with brush area, appear to be a testing ground for 2' wide bulldozers , some ruts are 18" deep, if the 12-14' gators did not take a few and there was not a short bow season, the place would likely have disappeared by now, just plowed under.
Don
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
thread drift: I haven't seen anything on it for some years, now, but there were feral cattle in the cane brakes of the lower Rio Grande. Ranch hands trying work cattle from horseback in there were charged by bulls. One article claimed a bull even charged a pickup truck. There was mention of hunting, using cartridges typical of Africa. That's sensible; even a ton of Hereford can be hard on a fella...
Art
Art
