I have lived in Texas my entire life and have never heard of such a creature. What exactly is it?

an african sheep. I have heard that they were intentionally released. I have no idea who had this dumb idea to release exotic animals into Texas.

Maybe you've heard them called "Barbary Sheep"...same critter

Actually they aren't quite sheep and aren't quite goat. Somewhere in between. Kind of a unique, if not destructive, species.

Pro Sandy I don't wanna burst your bubble but I got one at the taxidermist right now, and it's a native of India, not Africa.
FIFY

Hate to bust your bubble busting, but Barbary sheep (Auodad) are from northern Africa in Algeria, Tunisia, northern Chad, Egypt, Libya, northern Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including Western Sahara), Niger and Sudan (west of Nile and east of Nile in the Red Sea Hills)[1]. To give credit where it is due, straight from Wikipedia.

I stand corrected...

who can keep up with where all the stuff we got running loose is from any more? I do think that both the Black Buck and Axis are from India...but that may not be right either.

Go northwest of Del Rio anywhere along the Pecos or Devils River and you can kill all the Aoudad you want, they're a nuisance around them parts.

You are correct, both Blackbuck and Axis are from India and some surrounding areas.

Sandy and everyone else doing the bubble bursting I really hate to tell y'all that is not an aoudad in that picture it is a cougar.

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who can keep up with where all the stuff we got penned up in fences is from any more?

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FIFY

Looks like a black panther to me.

They are the scurge of West Texas wildlife. They are vectors for diseases that affect native Desert Bighorns and hypothetically other cervids in the region.
They also compete with the native species for browse. And, what they don't eat they step on - what they don't step on they $h!t on!
Parentheticall, they are neither a sheep or a goat genetically.
About the only way to rid Texas of them would be to trap them AND shoot them out of Helicopters - it's legal!

" Big coons walk at night !"

[This message has been edited by NW80 (edited 10/23/2008 7:56a).]

Needless to say - " I hate their livers and guts."

" Big coons walk at night !"

They are also resistant(immune?) to anthrax and can spread it around...

I would like to hunt an aoudad, but can't afford the going rate.

Maybe one day after they're as common as the jackrabbit and the price comes down.

"I hate 'em. They're decimating my land. If it were up to me I'd have ever single one of 'em kilt."


"Wow, I can help you out by killing one. How much you want for a hunt?"


"Twenty-five hundred dollars."

NW80.....you left out that they urinate on themselves and stink....

The scary part about an aoudad to me is you don't have to provide anything for them to thrive. I can't imagine what it would be like if you had them where you were slinging corn.....



[This message has been edited by sunchaser (edited 10/23/2008 8:55a).]

..they also beat the chit out of rock fences.

Make for a beautiful shoulder mount though. The game room would not be the same without the audad, black buck and axis.

This is probably going to open a giant can of worms, but I can't resist playing the devil's advocate here.

If they are the scourge of West Texas, are in such great abundance, carry and spread all of these diseases to native wildlife, are destructive of the habitat, and stink to high heaven, how do outfitters justify charging out the wazoo to kill one? If they are so terribly harmful, and numerous why don't outfitters simply allow people to kill them for free (I don't mean in addition to the $5000 mule deer hunt) or even pay people to kill them.

It's kind of like with feral hogs. People talk about how many million of them there are in Texas, how they hate them, and how destructive they are, yet even on this message board you get people advertising for hog hunts and wanting to charge people $ to come hunt them.

I realize that outfitters and landowners have an investment in time, feed, equipment, etc. But let's be honest, those inputs and costs are devoted toward the "glamour" species like whitetails, mule deer, turkeys, quail, etc. Basically Barbary Sheep and wild hogs are just nuisance species that you can happen to turn a buck selling hunts on while the ultimate goal is to either severely curtail their numbers or eliminate them entirely (good luck on that with hogs).

In my mind, it's like charging somebody money to come to your house and trap your mice for you.

Before you all start preaching to me and pummeling me with your criticism, I farm and ranch and own land. I do not lease my country to anybody, but rather use it myself and share it with family and friends. I realize as a landowner you can't just open your gates and allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to come hunt on you because of liability reasons. I just have a problem with people talking out of both sides of their mouths about how harmful and vile some species are, and then wanting to make big money off of charging people to hunt them.

Fire away at me, I'm a big boy and I can take it.

We've got these guys on our place. Funny thing is, last year we had game cam pics of them but during hunting season they never came out. Hopefully this year one will be on the ground, because this guy and another bigger one tear up some feeders.






We also have a few of these running around. Forgive the cell phone pics, he was ~25yds away and wasn't bothered at all by me. His 2 other buddies did leave though.







[This message has been edited by Bbatt99 (edited 10/23/2008 9:25a).]

So if someone wants to pay you a going rate to shoot an Aoudad....you let them if you are an outfitter. They of course don't want to shoot the ones that need shooting....gotta be 30" if I'm going to pay big bucks.

As I said before they require nothing from you to thrive other than land...some people don't care...so they thrive.

If you manage....have a MLDP....do your surveys via helicopter you can address an aoudad and pig issue if you have one at that time.

aoudads come to our feeders like a herd of cattle...I used to like seeing them and hunt them cause there were not that many and we did not see them all the time...now they are at the feeder every morning...there are a few monsters that I'd like to get a chance at with a bow but they seem to have just taken over

The most I've evr shot at one sitting was six,before they got over the ridge.

Is the Aoudad meat any good? I've never had it, but I'm sure a big ram would be mostly ground meat anyway.

Ag65Son, you make way too much sense.

But as the saying goes, money talks...

no way in hell I eat one of those things, I don't care if some people think it is good...I'll never try it, thats for sure

for Cowtown Red and Ag65Son

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how do outfitters justify charging out the wazoo to kill one?

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Because there are people up North that have never seen an Aoudad and want to kill one. When I was up hunting elk/mule deer in Canada 2 months ago, I mentioned feral hogs to my guides and they got a boner. Just like most folks in Canada wouldn't pay a dime to shoot an elk, alot of people in Texas won't pay a dime to shoot a hog, aoudad, or javelina. Everybody wants what they don't have.

txaggie02 - you are correct sir. Personally, I won't even entertain the idea anymore of paid hog hunts. There is no money in it and it's not worth the effort. However, if someone is coming from out of state and wants to hunt hogs and is willing to pay enough to make it worth my while to put them up and pay a guide(s), then so be it.

I have plenty of help among friends and family to kill hogs. If we had Audad, the same would apply.

Sunchaser,

I'm not trying to start a ruckus with you, but you mentioned, "they don't want to shoot the ones that need shooting". From what I've read on this post, they are vermin, so don't all of them need shooting? Are the ones that need shooting free of charge, and I don't mean somebody who has forked over $2500 - $5000 for a mule deer hunt.

Same here.....

we had some hunters in from Pennsylvania last year to hunt whitetail.

They asked to also kill "Wild Boar"! I said, "Excuse me?"
They said we call them hogs or pigs. I said, "Sure, kill all you want for $500 ea.".
They commenced to slaying 3 the next day and had a blast with pictures, stories ect!

Whatever........different strokes for different folks!

To answer some of the questions re: paying to shoot one, I'll offer y'all alittle story.
Several years ago ,when the "Exotic Game" boom was on, some friends of mine sat around imbibing aedult beverages. They decide that "people" would pay to shoot almost anything. Especially if they thought it was some kind of trophy.
With that they named an Angora "Hair" Goat the "Wild Himalayan Ankara". People actually paid to shoot an old billy with dingle berries and all.
You talk about STINK !!!!

Urban, today is your lucky day. See, I'm from New Mexico, and I hear that y'all have hogs over in your neck of the woods and that they're a real problem. I figure you can put me on some or if not give me some numbers of other folks who'd be able to...

[This message has been edited by SanAntoneAg (edited 10/23/2008 11:26a).]