Texas Hunting Forum

Flood effects on the animals - thoughts?

Posted By: John Humbert

Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/26/15 10:51 PM

OK, friends and neighbors - have a number of friends in the Blanco to Boerne area and let me just say some of the things I've heard and some of pics sent me would give you a pucker factor of about 13 on a scale of 1 to 10. Stories of how fast it came up in some areas, to the devastation to the landscape is incredible. The pictures on the news both sensationalize it somewhat, and don't even scratch the surface on some things.

With the loss of life, property, and widespread damage and human suffering - it might be selfish for me to be thinking about how this will effect hunting and deer crops, but I couldn't help think about some of those things - forgive me.

One of things that I was wondering about is the fact that many does have just dropped, or just fixing to drop, and I am wondering how the flood have impacted the livestock, deer and other wildlife in the areas affect - which is WIDESPREAD. Remember, this is right smack in the middle of hill country, where you can't travel very far in any direction without coming up on a high fence ranch or exotics. I'm certain there are many, many fences down - and breeders/ranchers have lost a number of quality animals.

I also wonder what toll it will take on turkey poults, quail eggs and hatchlings, new fawns, and the range and movement of the deer? Has it created a situation that predators will now have a field day on the survivors? Is this going be a good thing for the over-populated hill country deer herd, and/or is this going to impact numbers and quality for this fall season. Will this push some animals way off their normal ranges and patterns, basically making everything a game-changer - or will things return to normal quickly? Will we have all sorts of exotics or super-trophy whitetail escapees running around?

Should this make a change in the way we feed or hunt this summer? Is there anything we can do to help? Change our patterns of feed, locations, hunting tactics - or will all this be a distant memory by the time season rolls around with no effects?

Thoughts?
Posted By: don k

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/26/15 11:27 PM

I don't know about other areas but here I believe we have lost all out Turkey poults this year. Not with this last rain but with all the wet weather before. I see and hear Gobblers with hens. Too late in the year for that. We have no Quail so I know nothing about that. I have seen no fawns and the does still have big bellies so that seems to have worked out all right. Had some fences down over but got them back semi up. Sure makes me glad I have only one big creek on my place.
Posted By: don k

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/26/15 11:29 PM

Originally Posted By: don k
I don't know about other areas but here I believe we have lost all out Turkey poults this year. Not with this last rain but with all the wet weather before. I see and hear Gobblers with hens. Too late in the year for that. We have no Quail so I know nothing about that. I have seen no fawns and the does still have big bellies so that seems to have worked out all right. Had some fences down over but got them back semi up. Sure makes me glad I have only one big creek on my place.
Oh, and only had 4 dams wash out. Gives me something to do when it dries out.
Posted By: rifleman

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/26/15 11:41 PM

Here it's not uncommon for the flooding and the deer seem to do well. When trying to get calves pulled across it by boat you see deer piled up on the ridges that have turned island by the flooding. Would think regardless of where the deer are, they're survival instincts kick in.
Posted By: Pitchfork Predator

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/27/15 09:54 PM

Deer are natural swimmers so they are fine. Not sure about how the ground nesting birds would be affected, but probably not good for them.

Really sad about all the damage and destruction in the area. Lives lost as well. My daughter lost her car to the flood in San Marcos. I consider our family lucky.

Prayers up for all those families that have been affected by the floods. angel
Posted By: Texas Dan

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/29/15 04:33 AM

Originally Posted By: don k
I don't know about other areas but here I believe we have lost all out Turkey poults this year. Not with this last rain but with all the wet weather before. I see and hear Gobblers with hens. Too late in the year for that. We have no Quail so I know nothing about that. I have seen no fawns and the does still have big bellies so that seems to have worked out all right. Had some fences down over but got them back semi up. Sure makes me glad I have only one big creek on my place.


And this especially true in East Texas where officials have been doing their best to re-establish Eastern birds through restocking efforts.
Posted By: redchevy

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/29/15 12:40 PM

On our place flooding is very limited. Seems to me the more wet the better the fawns and quail turn out. So long as your not under water I don't see why turkey would be much different.
Posted By: dw173

Re: Flood effects on the animals - thoughts? - 05/29/15 07:11 PM

I think most of the deer get when the getting good, plus like was already said they swim quite well.
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