I’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to keep lessor prairie chicken off ES list, not sure what farming and grazing restrictions or even traffic restrictions would or wouldn't go in place but I'm not well to find out.


I'd love to see more LPC’s even if it meant no more pheasants but I sure don't need the restrictions

Private landowners are in very different positions legally than the US government building a reservoir.

The Endangered Species Act is worthy of a long post on its own, but in short, the ranches with the endangered cats and other endangered species are now positioned to receive substantial income for protecting them.

Even very small protection efforts can generate income to conservation minded ranches. Last week, I helped move some very small endangered cactus to a ranch in the Hill Country.

The ranch owner was paid $10,000 for letting a pipeline relocate 26 small cacti onto his land. They ranged from the size of a grape to the size of a baseball.

The ranch owner thought I was joking until the check really showed up. Now he is begging for more, which I'm working on. It is win-win for the ranch owner and the pipeline company trying to move them out of the way.

Another ranch owner put a conservation easement on 1,000 acres to protect a Hill Country creek with otters in it and some Golden-cheeked Warblers and received $2 million in cash and $2 million in bottom line tax credits.

So, that is $4 million in income for protecting her property which she was trying hard to do anyway.

Endangered cats can generate very substantial income to ranch owners, potentially into the seven figures or even more.

Sometimes I get paid for helping, sometimes it is just the satisfaction of helping save the wild places I grew up loving as a boy and I now see vanishing in front of my eyes.

The ranches with the cats I have been helping were able to block pipelines from coming through the core areas of their ranches, but their usual ranch activities of oil and gas production, cattle, and deer hunting continue as usual.

The USFWS uses what are known as "safe harbor" agreements. These agreements guarantee the landowners can continue to use their land as they have been while the animals are protected.

The government finally figured out that landowners with these endangered animals and plants knew more about how to manage their own lands than the desk drivers in DC.

Thank you for the kind words and thoughts.

Good for you on your efforts to protect wildlife. I hope some pictures are sent to you and possibly posted on here, very neat animals.

Kudos to you! As I mentioned, we would be happy to donate some maps if you ever need any made. Very cool project!

We have had 2-3 sightings at our place in Dimmit County. I had one cross my path about 60-70 yards in front of me. It stopped in the middle of the sendero and was studying something in the woods, before it walked into the brush. Probably had 45 seconds of observing it. I had known what they looked like and immediate knew what it was. Different than anything I’d seen in person before. Without a doubt it was one. Immediately got back to the ranch and looked up pics. Confirmed. That was about a decade back.

Fast forward to two years ago and my dad calls me on my cell and says he saw 1 as he was leaving our property. On the way back in from town, saw one near the same spot. Said that one seemed to be a different one perhaps as it looked to be bigger than the first. Both froze and watched him as he drove by and then they slinked off into the woods. Maybe it was more than one, but we chalked it up to at least one confirmed sighting.

About 15 years ago, my buddy described the most amazing looking bobcat he’d ever seen in his life. It sounded like he was describing an ocelot. I asked him if that is what it might have been. Said he’d never heard of an ocelot. Showed him a pic and he was like THAT is what I saw. 25 yards from his stand. Haven’t seen any evidence of one since then.

Love to know these creatures are still out there and hopefully being protected by all who see them! 👍

We had a black Jaguarundi on our place south of Freer that I have observed from a deer blind back in 2009. We have not seen one since, but the brush habitat on our land is perfect for them.

I've said for a long time that if we truly want to preserve endangered species we should be making it profitable to landowners. This is good to hear.

Personally, I've had too many sideways dealings with the EPA and the endangered species act to trust the government. Monetary compensation and a usfw willing to work with landowners is the only way we will restore habitat. It's gonna take me a while before I trust the government. But this is a step in the right direction.

yeah... get a pic of a rare cat and have USFW crawling all over the place, deeming the property a safe haven for the cats.... F that.

I have 2 pictures of one taken in Weatherford

.....

Joe Rogan mentioned on one of his podcast that’s he has surveillance video of one near his house in Austin
Anyone know if the video was ever posted?

Well, this one is a coatimundi, not a Jaguarundi as first thought

Interesting on the coati...still hundreds of miles outside of its normal range.

It is easy to doubt people's statements of what they have seen. My guess the doubter is wrong quite a bit.

Funny...how the leading poster's posts actually mean something.

TPWD did a write up on these guys today

they are such neat cats, hope we never lose them

I saw them post on Facebook where they had pics of 5 kittens caught on trail cam yesterday. I'll see if I can find it.

It's great seeing someone with such a passion for preservation. You may not know the answer to this, but has the introduction of so many non native species to Texas helped or hurt the wild cat population? Same question in regards to the feral house cat population in the hill country?

Bobcats seem to be doing well in many areas of South Texas. While they tend to go after small prey, they seem to prey on small pigs from anecdotal reports. So the areas with more pigs may support more cats and the cats are contributing to killing pigs. Areas with more deer and pigs are more likely to have mountain lions, although they are scarce anywhere. I found a half eaten deer covered in leaves with mountain lion tracks along a creek, well inside of the Austin city limits.

Feral cat colonies are bad news for wildlife, especially ground nesting birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Pigs also obliterate these same ground species. The cat ladies are not helping the cats either, just refilling the buffet line for coyotes to eat alive.

Ocelots are almost exclusively found in native thorn brush, especially near creeks and draws. So many regard thorn brush as worthless and something to be removed. The thorn brush is rich in wildlife, although hard to see. A lightbulb went off in my mind when I saw a 10,000 acre property with all native brush plowed under to grow soy beans. All the vegans feel good eating tofu made from those soy beans grown in that 10,000 acre field, now almost completely devoid of any form of life other than soy bean plants. Deer, cats, badgers, dozens of bird species, horny toads, snakes, butterflies, everything was wiped out and obliterated to make tofu and soy lattes for Houston, Dallas, and Austin. That example also illustrates the economic value of deer hunting to wildlife habitat conservation. Ranches with significant income from hunting manage the property to benefit wildlife. Many other animals benefit from the revenue deer bring to preserve the land.

That habitat destruction is what is killing these wild cats, horny toads, many species of birds, and other wildlife more than anything along with the loss and/or pollution of fresh water sources.

Wildlife, like people, need food, water, and shelter to survive. Lack of clean water is rapidly turning into a critical situation in the western 2/3’s of Texas. Much of the water that does remain is becoming badly polluted.

When I was a boy, we drank water straight from the Blanco River and it tasted great. Now towns dump sewage effluent into so many of our water sources, they are unfit to swim in, much less drink. What has happened to us? Why do we let our water be poisoned without even caring?

I used to take groups on bird watching tours around Texas. A few were heavily involved in bird conservation globally. They made a comment from their perspective traveling around the world that always stuck in my mind. They said Texas is one of the best areas in the world for wildlife and at a point now that Africa was 100 years ago. They said, fight to protect what you have here right now before it vanishes. So I am doing what I can. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.

Has anyone ever tried baiting for ocelots or jaguarundis in areas with suitable habitat the way they do big cats in Africa to document their presence or are they just too scarce?

Researchers at Laguna Atascosa NWR have tried scent lures with mixed results. These cats are wily. One of their researchers told me they had an ocelot with a radio collar they located, surrounded with cameras (they thought), but it took two years to get a photo on a game camera even with the radio collar on it.

In 2009 I was hunting between Freer and Benavides and saw a Jaguarundi on 2 different occasions from the same stand about 2 weeks apart. It was never seen again as far as I know. It was absolutely beautiful.

Very neat and very believable.
They are many credible reports.
Guys take cameras with you or even try for a cell phone photo.
Thanks for sharing this Marty.

I had two Jaguarundis cross about 40 yards from my bow blind near Freer Tx in 1993. The landowner had to tell me what they were based off my describing and seeing the tracks.

Have had two separate sightings of a "black panther" about 18 month ago, 20 miles north of Brady. Run 9 trail cams and if anything outlined above shows will gladly share. I assume an abundance of wild pigs do not help.