Does anyone know of any bushbuck in Texas? They are one of my favorite African antelopes, and id love to see them one day here in the states.

Kobus you need to get a copy of Exotics on the Range by Cary Mungall and William J Sheffield. I checked my copy and there are no reports of Bushbuck in Texas. The other place to check is the EWA Species List If it isn't listed in either place there is almost no chance of it being available.

Interesting.
I've heard stuff as interesting as Hartebeest, Tsessebe, Val Rhebok, and even Lord Derby Eland in Texas. I mean any things possible, I wouldn't hesitate to say that someone maybe in the past or now has(or had) a bushbuck.

Maybe they will pop up in the future...

It has to be in the past because zoos could and would sell excess stock to almost anyone. That hasn't been true for many years, prior to Chronic Wasting Disease, there was some flexibility with Cervids, that's no longer true.

What happened with the excess stock then?

A lot of time it becomes food for the carnivores.

Zoos still sell stock to private owners, but most if not all will not sell direct to ranches associated with hunting. Closed borders absolutely complicates things.

Think I said my thoughts in the original response. Neat animal, would love to see them here, their aggression is a bit overblown - dangerous when wounded - yes, so are any number of species common over here. Dangerous to other species - potentially, so are a number of other super exotics. they don't do wonderfully with nyala, but it's not like ranchers in SA are overly concerned about trans-species losses.

I think it comes down to the fact that they aren't rare, they don't attract a crowd at zoo, and there's not enough of a market interest to justify the up-front cost of trying to get them over here.

What happens between them and Nyala?

They fight, and the bushbuck tend to win. See them on the same place plenty, but usually only larger places where they can settle into different areas/habitats on the property.

Bushbuck are pretty aggressive ex specially if injured.

I want to differ from Txnrog. I see Bushbuck and Nyala grazing amongst
one another everyday and I've never seen any action between them.

Very nice Bushbuck Cody

Thanks FVH40, Nothern Limpopo Provence 2014

My concession has quite a few Nyala & Bushbuck, ours tend to be in different areas since the bushbuck really like the thick edges around the creeks and the Nyala like the small medows they graze in.

To my knowledge we don't have many BB injure other animals but I'm sure it happens.

I did get a link to a local SA newspaper article where a local garner was recently killed by a bushbuck, freak deal though, bb put a horn right threw his temple

fVH40 - maybe it's old ranchers tales, but when I worked over there, several ranchers complained about struggling to introduce nyala if they had strong existing populations of bushbuck. Perhaps misguided cause and effect since they do naturally co-exist in KZN, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. As mentioned, see plenty of places with them on the same property, but generally smaller properties (by African standards) I saw would have one or the other.

What I have been told is. The zoos do not own all the animals. Some of the animals are owned by individuals and are on loan to the zoo. the individual who owns the animals gets a certain percentage of the offspring and the zoo gets the rest. The zoo cannot sell to an individual but the person that actually owns the animals can. That is how an individual can buy animals from zoos. I was told this by Harwood at Circle H when I bought a surplus Nubian Ibex Kid from him. Hopefully it is true. The Ibex looks really good so either way it worked out good for me.

don k

Thanks for the explanation.

Txnrog- old ranchers tale is my thought exactly

Have a good weekend guys

There's some here i know a guy that has some in pens breeding them!maybe not on hunting ranchs yet but they will be.

Oh sweet!

Where are they at? What subspecies?

Not sure i'll have to ask him!he had 3-4 females and a male! Most of the zoos have stopped there breeding programs by injecting contraceptives in the females.Some still sell surplus animals but only to members of the AZA and its hard to get into.If they find out they end upon hunting ranches you can get kicked out.

Cool stuff.

I know that another spiral horn, the Lesser Kudu, is starting to show up more in Texas...although at a slow pace.
Would love to see them around in breeding size herds but I'm sure I'm not going to love the price tag!!!!

There are more of a cousin of the Bushbuck here, Waterbuck. I know those can get aggressive, know one that is on a friends wall, it put its horns into the ranchers truck door one day after it had killed other animals. The rancher said he barely got in the truck in time.

Seems another species of animal was in heat and had that one worked up / frustrated looking for something.

Waterbuck aren't really a cousin of Waterbuck.
Bushbuck belong in the spiral horn family along with elands, kudus, etc.
Waterbuck are in a family consisting of puku, kobs, and lechwes.

But yes, I do believe of their aggression. The ranch where I hunted mine down near Crystal City has a herd of 50-60 and the bulls during the rut would go wild and start killing each other.