It's pretty interesting to me. I laughed at my Aunt here in Austin County when she told us she came face to face with one in the woods on our property. Scared her enough that she took her deer feeder down because she was afraid it was hunting the deer around her house. Then she came to my parents scared to death because she was hearing it calling/screaming at night. I showed her a video of a lion calling and she swears that was it. My parents have heard it also. But my brother (who owns more walker hounds than a man should be allowed and is about as hardcore coyote/fox/bobcat hunter as you'll find) and I haven't been able to find evidence of tracks, etc. We cleared quite a lot of the underbrush around her house to make her feel better and there hasn't been any supposed sightings for a while now. Oh well, probably a bobcat, I've seen some pretty big ones around our place.

Could be a fox, although I haven't seen any in a long time. Plenty of coyotes and a few bobcats around. I'm more worried about the wild hogs that are moving in now that my grandad passed several years ago and my brother has moved off with his "wolf" dogs. We never had hog problems when they were running their dogs several nights a week. My 13 yr old just bought himself an armasight night scope he thinks he's going to eradicate a few with.

I know, I did the same thing to the poor lady at my church when she told me she saw a bald eagle. I told her it was probably one of those vultures with the white heads. Hurt her feelings.

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Most folks that hear mountain lions are usually listening to foxes.

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My neighbor can call up a local fox with just his own voice. He messes with it. Calls it close to his house, etc. He is very good doing all sorts of voices. He can do some coyote yelps that you would swear were real.

He is also a lifetime friend from childhood. When we were teenagers, he could do the best Donald Duck voice I have ever heard. We would order at the fast food drive through in Donald Duck talk.

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Foxes are rabies carriers. Not as bad as skunks, I suppose, but I personally wouldn't want to be calling them up to the house.

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Foxes are rabies carriers. Not as bad as skunks, I suppose, but I personally wouldn't want to be calling them up to the house.

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My neighbor and I have had foxes around our houses for a very, very long time. Sometimes we spot one sitting out on the county road, looking at our house. I think they must hunt that way sometimes. I'm sure they have learned to catch little critters crossing the road. Neighbor has no dogs but I have two, so I suppose there is a possibility to transfer to my dogs and subsequently surprise me or a family member. I doubt either one of us is going to start eliminating foxes now though.

My mother was an M.D., she always warned us to watch out for "foxes and skunks" that are acting strangely, or simply out in the middle of the day when they are mostly nocturnal animals. She was a country girl too and one thing that would really irritate her was when a snakebite victim would come in and swear it was a rattler but the bite nor the snake description sounded or looked like a rattler. She would make an attempt to have a family member go find the snake and bring it to her. I don't know if she was ever successful with that request. Those were the days when poisonous snakebites were treated with X shaped cuts and rubber suction bulbs, etc. so it was a big deal to mis-diagnose whether a snakebite was actually poisonous or not.

On a related issue, they have virtually eliminated rabies in foxes in targeted areas in Europe using oral vaccines dropped in the area. Supposedly those areas only have skunk rabies left as much of a threat, and they are going to try to bait-vaccinate them next. It would be a lot harder to do in an area as big as Texas though.

http://www.theeagle.com/news/local/state-health-services-to-air-drop-rabies-vaccines-in-edible/article_8ca91bc2-c891-5613-9d6b-6140568c76cc.html

Yeah they're doing that here, too. Hope it's successful.

The oral vaccine program has been pretty effective. Unfortunately, foxes are pretty bad about catching skunk rabies.

Ursus, do you think that map is pretty realistic? It doesn't seem right that some areas like all of West Texas, King Ranch, Houston, and a good chunk of East Texas report no cases. Then you have this large occurence in Fort Worth. The Raccoon part seems reasonable since there are a lot of them in the Hill Country, but I thought there would be some in East Texas too. If that map is anywhere near reflecting what is actually happening, then it seems the situation is manageable if there is a need for it to be managed.

Another thing that strikes me is all of the raccoon pictures at deer feeders that Texags posts, but I could believe that raccoons just don't have the level of problem that coyotes and skunks do.

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Ursus, do you think that map is pretty realistic?

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These are confirmed cases. Lots of people just shoot and don't say anything, I bet.

Those are the cases that have been reported for one reason or another.

Clusters within coons could very easily be linked to feeders. Hince why the Hill Country tends to have higher rates of rabies in coons.

Look closer, rabies in coyotes is extremely rare. It's not uncommon for us to go a couple years without any coyotes testing positive. Keep in mind, they are extremely sensitive to distemper, and will display in a very similar manner.

To keep it clean I only did the "wild animal map". Here is everthing for 2015. Don't worry about the bats, they stick all most exclusively to themselves.



Here is by variant to make that point---skunks are almost exclusively the issue.


When I'm not typing with my thumbs I'll write up an explanation behind some of the patters....during somewhat drier years, you'll see more in West Texas (critters are more concentrated to resources, one reason East Texas usually doesn't have a lot). Skunks do great in the 35 corridor, lots of people, so major public health issues.

Here's a little more West Texas for you...note, no coyotes.

Thanks for the info.... cool maps.

The bats are interesting... little pockets presumably where there are some bat caves in most of those places except Houston.

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Thanks for the info.... cool maps.

The bats are interesting... little pockets presumably where there are some bat caves in most of those places except Houston.

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I've always seen bats at night in Houston area since I can remember. I know there is the Waugh Dr. colony which is fairly large.

Houston has quite a few colonies in bridges, not just at Waugh.

Just a few....honestly, always found the Houston bat story more interesting than Austin. Lots of great outreach efforts down there.

We have more insects and more different species of bats than they do. I never cease to be amazed at the various places we get reports of bats showing up.

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Just a few....honestly, always found the Houston bat story more interesting than Austin. Lots of great outreach efforts down there.

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The team down here has a good leader too.

Do indeed.

Ursusguy, thanks for the update. Not surprised nobody knows anything about it.

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Thanks for the info.... cool maps.

The bats are interesting... little pockets presumably where there are some bat caves in most of those places except Houston.

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I've always seen bats at night in Houston area since I can remember. I know there is the Waugh Dr. colony which is fairly large.

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A lot of the bats you see in neighborhoods in Houston are species that live alone or in very small groups in hollow trees, palm fronds, home attics, etc., not necessarily large colonies like Waugh. Species like pipistrelles, big and little brown bats, evening bats, etc. There are thousands upon thousands of them probably living within 50 feet of houses all over Texas.

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Most folks that hear mountain lions are usually listening to foxes.

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What does the fox say?

It's not all that crazy, we have one that visits our neighborhood (rural area south of Hutto) a couple of times a year - tracks in mud, etc. and was on a neighbor's game cam.

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It's not all that crazy, we have one that visits our neighborhood (rural area south of Hutto) a couple of times a year - tracks in mud, etc. and was on a neighbor's game cam.

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Just to clarify... are you talking about mountain lions, foxes, or.... bats?

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It's not all that crazy, we have one that visits our neighborhood (rural area south of Hutto) a couple of times a year - tracks in mud, etc. and was on a neighbor's game cam.

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Just to clarify... are you talking about mountain lions, foxes, or.... bats?

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I was late to the party in this thread! Mountain lion. Got my attention with the tracks around my neighbor's pool across the street.

Next time you find the tracks, please photograph them with a size reference.

AgEng06 and 96AustinAg...

My mechanic, a full time farmer and rancher who is retired as a service manager for a Chevy dealer, recently found evidence of a cougar.

His house and shop are surrounded by cultivated fields which he also uses for rotational grazing. He has a stock tank in a dry creek near his house. There are no trees or brush around the water. He came home about a month ago and found one of his cows dead in the water. He pulled it out and said there were claw puncture marks on the top of the neck, some kind of marks on the throat, and some claw rakes elsewhere on the body. In his mind nothing else but a cougar could have made marks like that.

His theory is that his cow was attacked and went into the water where she died but also forced the cat to abandon the kill. He did not offer pictures so I don't think he took any.

My post is medina county. He lives between rio medina and Quiihi.

I also posted about medina county sightings in 2006. I personally know three families who watched a cougar playing around on three different days. All of them live within two miles of my home. As far as I know, nobody has reported a sighting around here till now... Ten year span.