The regions and wildlife found in Texas.
Texas is
filled
with a
wide
variety
of
animals,
insects,
flora,
reptiles
and
amphibians.
Texas is
naturally
divided into
several
sections.
These areas
are different
habitats, or
environments,
where
different
things prefer
to live.
The Big Bend area is located on the very
western tip of Texas. It is red on the map.
The Big Bend is part of a
dry desert.
It also has mountains.
Most of the Big Bend
area is a desert with
less than 10 inches of rain annually!
Only the hardiest of plants can grow in this dry climate.
For protection and survival, many of the plants have spines, thorns, or
poisonous leaves to keep animals from eating them.
Animals have adapted to the hot, dry climate by seeking shade during the
hottest parts of the day and coming out to eat and hunt only at dusk when it is
relatively cool
Big Bend Country is a region of
extremes. The desert is dry and hot in
the day and cool at night. Plants and
animals are adapted for the desert. The
mountains provide cold weather in the
winter, where on occasion it even snows.
Forests grow on the slopes. The slopes
of these mountains can grow trees because the high, cooler mountain tops cause
precipitation to fall from clouds moving over the peaks.
The Rio Grande River runs along the southern part of the Big Bend Country. It forms
the border between Texas and Mexico. The Rio Grande is one of the longest rivers in
North America. This region is called "Big Bend" because the Rio Grande River turns
here in a big bend.
Many people come to this part of Texas to see its mountains.
The three highest mountain ranges are the Guadalupe
Mountains, Davis Mountains and Chisos Mountains.
Long ago, the Indians who lived in the Big Bend country of
Texas painted pictures on the walls of caves. They painted
shapes, people, and animals.
Roadrunners live in the Big Bend area of Texas. Roadrunners are
birds that run very fast.
Mostly they eat insects and small animals, such as mice and
gophers, but roadrunners are also fast enough to catch and eat
rattlesnakes!
The Big Bend area also has Tarantulas. They are big, hairy
spiders. They have 8 eyes! Some tarantulas have lived 20 years.
Although they look scary, a bite is rare and not harmful to
humans.
The coyote is a nocturnal
animal that howls at
night.
About the size of a small
German shepherd dog,
it is usually gray or buff
in color, with yellow eyes,
erect ears and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
This intelligent animal has a keen sense of hearing, sight, and smell.
Coyotes will eat almost anything, but they particularly like rabbits and rodents.
They use abandoned dens or natural holes or “cavities” as their dens.
Mountain lions are
slender and tawny
brown in color with a
smallish head.
The mountain lion is
usually 3-4 feet in length with a tail almost as long as its body!
Mountain lions live alone and eat meat, such as deer, wild hogs,
rabbits, and rodents.
They are found throughout the Big Bend Region.
Mountain lions are also called cougars, pumas, and panthers.
Lechuguilla is a hardy desert
plant. This shrub has yellowgreen leaves with purplish to
yellow flowers.
Once it flowers, the plant
dies. All of the plant’s
nutrients stored over the years are used in the process of creating a tall stem
with blooms at the top, which causes it to die after blooming.
The roots of the plant are eaten by deer and javelin but are poisonous to
cattle.
Native peoples long ago made twine, baskets, and sandals from the fibers of
these plants. The center or “heart” of the plant was roasted and eaten.
The plant has adapted to the dry environment by storing water in its thick
“succulent” (juicy) leaves.
Javelina travel in small
herds or "family groups"
and are found in the
Big Bend desert area.
In the winter, they are
generally active in the
early morning and late
afternoon. Javelina are
largely nocturnal during the hotter times of the year.
They feed primarily on cacti (particularly prickly pear), mesquite beans,
lechuguilla, sotol, mast, fruits, and insects.
They generally will not run from humans, and are known for being
ferocious, willing to bite both humans and dogs. Javalina’s cannot see
well.
The National Park Service estimates there are 8 to 12 adult black bears living
in Big Bend National Park, located in southern Texas along a bend in the Rio
Grande. This population indicates a return of the black bear to the Chisos
Mountains, absent since the formation of the park.
There are a reported 75 species
of mammals in Big Bend
National Park, and another six
are suspected to reside there.
Most of the mammals are
nocturnal due to the extreme
heat of the day.
Common mammals include
deer, shrews, moles, bats,
javelina, bobcats, pigs,
mountain lion, fox and coyote,
to just name a few.
Gray Foxes can also be found in the Big Bend Country.
They are the only foxes that can climb trees. The eat mice,
voles, rabbits, birds, field mice, insects, fruits and
vegetables.
The weasel is found in the
desert of Big Bend Country.
Even though weasels are
small, they are extremely
quick. They move across
swiftly and are master
predators. They make no
sound, and approach their
prey quietly, pouncing on it after getting in range. Weasels
do not hibernate and are therefore active during summer
as well as winter seasons. They are also known to be
nocturnal.
Badgers are incredibly strong for their
size, and the world’s fastest diggers.
They all prefer sandy, porous soil and
dig extensive tunnels and burrows
which are called setts.
The American Badger of Big Bend
Country is the most carnivorous of the species, using their
stellar digging skills to unearth chipmunks, ground hogs and
rabbits. They have even been known to eat rattlesnakes and,
during the winter, will feed on dead animals.
The Mule Deer received
its name from it’s large
ears that look almost
just like a mule (a type of
horse with big ears).
With each bound, mule deer may jump as high as 2 feet and as
far as 15 feet. Mule deer can run at speeds of up to 40 mph for
short distances.
The average distance mule deer travel when startled is about
900 meters, although they may go up to 4 miles before stopping.
A White tail deer uses it's
tail to communicate with
other deer. If a deer
senses danger it will raise
it's tail as well as stomp
the ground and snort by blowing air through it's nostrils.
Whitetail deer get their names from the white hair growing on the
underside of their tail and belly.
A deer's powerful legs allow it to run at speeds of up to 40 miles
per hour and jump fences up to 9 feet tall.
The Big Bend area have Elk, although
their numbers are small. Elk have been
hunted for generations.
American Indians
• Hunted elk for food
• Used hides for clothing and blankets
• Fashioned bones and antlers into tools
• Decorated garments with ivories, or traded them for goods
Lewis and Clark
• The Corps of Discover killed and ate at least 375 elk during the Lewis and
Clark Expedition
• Each man consumed roughly eight pounds of meat daily
• They used elk hides for clothing, moccasins, blankets, ropes, patching canoes
and to cover gear
The pronghorn antelope once roamed
across two-thirds of the state.
You can still see them in parts of Texas, but
recently there's been trouble on the range.
Pronghorn populations have experienced a
sharp decline in the Big Bend region and scientists aren't sure why. One
clue may be a tiny stomach worm showing up in record numbers in West
Texas pronghorn antelopes.
They're teaming up with landowners and hunters to solve the mystery of
the disappearing longhorn.
Bighorn sheep, with their thick,
gnarled gray horns, once roamed
the rugged mountains of northern
Mexico and far West Texas.
Unregulated hunting and disease
carried by domestic and exotic
livestock obliterated their numbers.
By 1960 they were gone.
In recent years, though, they've made a comeback. In 2010, 46 bighorns
were relocated over two days from Elephant Mountain Wildlife
Management Area south of Alpine to the Bofecillos Mountains along the Rio
Grande at Big Bend Ranch State Park.
Five species of skunks are found in
Texas, but you probably won't ever
meet one kind – the hooded skunk –
unless you live in the Big Bend region.
A litter of from one to seven young, averaging five, is born from late April to early
June. An individual's territory may span 30 to 40 acres. In the wild, skunks tend to den
in shallow burrows or hollow logs. They are hardly ever found more than two miles
from a water source.
Skunks are generally nocturnal and begin foraging at sunset. Skunks are omnivorous
and help keep the rodent population in check. They often travel five to ten miles
within their territory at night looking for field mice and other small rodents as well as
lizards, frogs, birds, eggs, garbage, acorns, and fallen fruit. They also dig for insects,
especially beetles, larvae, and earthworms. Their diet includes black widow spiders
and scorpions. Skunks eat 70% of insects harmful to humans!
Big Bend is home to an
amazing array of
lizards! Twenty-two
species to be exact.
Why are lizards important?
What is their role in this ecosystem? Most of the lizards here,
are found in the diet of many other creatures. Lizards are the
main prey item for roadrunners, one of Big Bend’s most popular
birds. They help regulate the populations of other animals here,
particularly insects, by feeding upon them. This is a picture of a
Southwestern Earless Lizard
Creepy features of scorpions include the
pincers which are used for feeding purposes
only, and of course the stinger which injects
the venom used to kill prey.
Whether it is the pinching or the stinging, we should not feel threatened at
all. The truth is, a scorpion would never actually attack a human.
A sting is painful, much like a honeybee, but may also cause a tingling
sensation throughout the body as nerve endings react to the witch’s brew of
chemicals in the venom.
Deadly to insects, the venom causes only discomfort in larger creatures.
Many scorpion predators, including coyotes, owls, snakes, bats, and hawks
might eat a lot more of them if they didn’t have to face a possible sting.
Velvet Mite are common in the Big Bend desert area, and
many other areas of Texas. They are related to spiders. We
believe that they must not taste good, because ants and
other insects do not eat them. They like to come out after
it rains, and do not harm humans.
The Texas Kangaroo Rat is rare and is listed
as a threatened species by Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department. They live in
underground dens with the entrance at the
base or roots of a small mesquite tree. They make trails to their burrows.
Texas Kangaroo Rats are highly nocturnal, only coming out when it is
completely dark.
The diet of the Texas Kangaroo Rat consists of seeds, stems, and leaves of
grasses, forbs, and some perennials. Domestic crops such as oats and
introduced grasses like Johnson grass are the most important plants in their
diet.
Texas Kangaroo Rats store food to get them through periods of scarcity.
There are over 160 different
types of Butterflies in
Big Bend Country…..
and even many more moths!!
Each year towards the end of the
summer and through the fall, we begin
to see a migration of Monarch
Butterflies, at this time of year it is
common to see certain flowering bushes
teeming with twenty or more.
Southern Dog Face
Gulf fritillary
Texan crescent
Checkered White
Orange Skipperling
Golden Banded Skipper
Chisos Giant Skipper
Chisos Metal Mark
Bromeliad Scrub-Hairstreak
Mexican Dartwhite
Red Admiral
Pipevine Swallowtail
American Snout
Big Bend Tree Lizard
Texas Banded Gecko….
Big Bend is home to an amazing array
of lizards and Geckos!
Twenty-two species to be exact.
Black-tailed Rattlesnake
Rock Rattlesnake
Mojave rattlesnake
Big Bend Milk Snake
Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are poisonous, especially the
young. The Milk Snake is safe.
Big Bend Slider
Western Box Turtle
Three toed Box Turtle
Birds of prey that live in the area
include Golden Eagles, Red-tailed
Hawks and other hawks, American
Kestrels, Peregrine Falcons, Prairie
Falcons, and Turkey Vultures.
Scaled Quail,
Montezuma Quail,
Gambel's Quail
and Wild Turkey, can
also be seen in the park,
as can ravens and a few species of Jays.
Dozens of species of
songbirds, including
warblers, orioles,
blackbirds, sparrows,
towhees, and
more can be
seen in
Big Bend as well.
Big Bend in the Spring
Big Bend in the Summer
Big Bend in the Fall
Big Bend in the Winter
Remember:
We have only
discussed
what the Big
Bend region is
like. The next
slide show will
be about the
Panhandle
Plains of
Texas.