Spent some time on a few ranches this fall, all low fence, and all with game camera photos of red stag. None of these ranches bought stags, so it's assumed they are escapees from nearby high fence/exotic ranch operations.

This started an interesting discussion: Will red stag follow the axis and become a free range Texas exotic?

- They seem winter and summer hardy
- Adaptable to terrain and food sources (protein and corn feeding adding to the native options)
- Ease of reproduction
- Not undesired by ranchers. As in, not pigs, so more folks likely to enjoy having them/hunting them.

Thoughts from those who hunt in areas of the state with free ranging stags…are these here to stay and Will populations grow/expand?

Or will we mostly just see small pockets of groups based on ranch size, nearby exotic operations, etc.

since they live in Sweden and Norway, seems like they could make it in Bastrop.

I've been surprised by stag and elk expanding in the Rolling Plains. Wildfires in 2011 seemed to be starting point for many of the animals I've seen in the area. Some landowners like it, some don't but bottom line is you have to figure the carrying capacity of the land and manage everything accordingly--livestock, white-tailed, mule deer and exotics. Especially in arid rangelands.

Elk and Stag can have fertile offspring as well.

But if I had my choice, I'd prefer the elk. They were here first, and they taste better.

To answer the question you posed in your thread title, since you are seeing them on low fence places, you've already answered your own question.

They have made there way into our place and have been around and reproducing for about 3 years now. No idea where they came from and we rarely see them outside of game cameras. We also have seen elk, Sika, and Silk (elk/Sika). One of the fun things about hunting the hill country is not ever really knowing what may walk out… makes up for not having 170" native deer.

I killed one in Brazos County, Doe, I believe Hind is the correct term, female either way.

She was with 2 others that had gotten off of a place down river. This was 10 or so years ago now.

Nice. The meat is fantastic. Compares well to elk IMO

There are few pure Red Deer in Texas and few pure Rocky Mountain Elk in Texas as it applies to high fence operations. Most of the Elk bought and sold at auctions and on many high fence places in Texas have some Red Deer in them and likewise for Red Deer.
Pure pedigrees of both are prized and usually have paperwork to prove their lineage.
About 20 years ago Red Deer and Elk were crossed by Red Stag breeders to increase the size.
Elk and Red Deer are big and consume lots of groceries and need adequate water sources......that will limit their distribution more than anything else.

Our neighbor ranch has Red Deer. We have Elk and make a trade every year on cow/hind.
Imho the Red Deer is better than Elk... more tender and mild.

Gunny you make a great point on water. These ranchers routinely find the majority of photos around water sources. Or trails to/from.

It's almost like you know what you're talking about…

Great input, as always!

There are plenty of free ranging red deer in Bandera County.

I suppose these are already more prevalent than I knew. Thanks for sharing your info everyone.

My buddy who has 300 acres 25 miles south of Ozona has been getting regular pics of red stag for about 3 years now. The little herd is growing slowly but surely. They showed up a few months after the big anthrax outbreak that wiped out most of the whitetail and other exotics down in that area.

Curious as to whether anyone can help identify this as elk or red stag. These are on a ranch behind our place in Concan, TX. There is a small herd of about 20 that pass through every morning. These two decided to approach on the other side of the fence yesterday. So I took a few pics.

The male didn't approach but was able to get a pic of it.

Red stag

Red stag for sure

Was this next to 2Morrow or the new ranch right off 83 & 127? Or perhaps somewhere different? Both have Red Stag, as seen in your picture and I think are the source of the small herd we have on our lease.

I could see the proliferation of Red Stag & the expansion of the Elk herd down from New Mexico (and stocked Elk for that matter) leading to widespread interbreeding in Texas and contaminating the Southern end of the Rocky Mountain elk herd.

Whether or not that is a good thing depends upon your point of view I suppose.

I still have a hard time understanding why native Elk are not managed by TP&W like other native species & treated like exotics. (NW80 had strong opinions on this btw!!)

I didn't know nw80 had any subjects which he did NOT have a strong opinion.

That's the truth!

He did seem to have some pretty good insight into that particular subject though. Most of what I remember from a few phone calls with him, centered around several large (100s of thousands of acres) ranches that had/have free range elk essentially banded together and fought it. They didn't want public access and/or oversight from TPWD.

I also remember him telling me that TPWD traded bunch of Turkey for Elk from another state but I don't remember which one.

Apache said:

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I still have a hard time understanding why native Elk are not managed by TP&W like other native species & treated like exotics. (NW80 had strong opinions on this btw!!)

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Well you can thank some wealthy landowners for peddling their influence in the 90s for that. It would literally take an act of the state legislature to undo that knot. We can make fun of Colorado for their ballot box biology on things like wolves and lions, but we're all too happy to let crony politics screw up our hunting and wildlife management.

This is at the back of our place off of Hwy 83 across from Garner state park. Our neighbor has a large place and has several different species that pass through almost daily.

Then we're extremely close, possibly even neighbors