Passport to Texas

A large and lovely bobcat.

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This is Passport to Texas

Bobcats thrive in urban areas of Texas. Twice as large as domestic cats, this relative of the lynx is secretive.

If someone comes across a bobcat, take a moment to enjoy the opportunity that you see this secretive, shy animal.

Richard Heilbrun is the conservation outreach leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We did an urban bobcat research project in Dallas-Fort Worth, and we had high numbers of bobcats thriving in the Trinity River corridor, because there’s good, functioning, healthy, ecosystem.

Urban bobcats perform an ecosystem function that most folks don’t realize.

We just completed a research project on diet of urban bobcats in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by looking at their scat. Which is their droppings. And, it looks like urban bobcats in that area, rely on rodents for about 65 percent of their diet. If you tease apart the data just a little bit more, fifty percent of their diet is non-native urban rats. So, they’re really performing an ecosystem function for us by consuming these rats that, biologically, shouldn’t be there anyway. So, we’re taking a negative—these nonnative rats—and we’re feeding them to a native predator that should be there, and is adding value to our ecosystem.

Learn more about urban wildlife on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series and funds research on the ecology of urban bobcats in DFW.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Bobcats serve an ecosystem function.

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This is Passport to Texas

You might be surprised to learn that wildlife is all around. Even in large Texas cities.

Bobcats thrive very well in urban areas. They’re extraordinarily adaptive.

Richard Heilbrun is the conservation outreach leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife. He says bobcats can find everything they need to survive in cities.

And so they will use the greenbelts and the city parks and the rivers and the creeks that run through our cities as travel corridors. And in those habitats, those greenbelts, they’ll find the rats and the snakes and the mice and the birds necessary for them to thrive.

It’s rare to see an urban bobcat. But it does happen; when it does, Richard says reactions vary.

People have all sorts of reactions to bobcats. Some are excited. Some are worried. Some are nervous for the bobcat. Some think that it wound up there by mistake. And other people are afraid, because they don’t know how bobcats act. And so they’re coming to us with a wide range of questions, preconception, or ideas about outcomes that they think should happen. And we get to help them navigate whatever reaction they have into a solution that’s good for the bobcat and good for the people.

What you should know about urban bobcats. That’s tomorrow.

The Wildlife restoration program supports our series and funds research on the ecology of urban bobcats in DFW.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

Aquarium in TV. Image: Furnish Burnish

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This is Passport to Texas

How far would you travel to ensure the future of your favorite exotic aquarium fish?

We had some folks telling us that they would go as far as 50 miles to find an appropriate body of water.

Releasing pet fish into Texas waters when you no longer want them, is not a humane act. Exotic aquaria species disrupt natural ecosystems.

When we spoke, Priscilla Weeks was a research scientist at the Houston Advanced Research Center. At the time, her team used a TPWD grant to research why people release their fish into Texas waters.

I think there might be a stereotype where folks think that it is easy, emotionally, just to release a fish. But actually what we’re finding is folks are very attached to their pets.

According to research, whether a person gives up their fish depends on personal preference like its behavior or physical attributes.

And what we’re finding is that different individuals prefer different attributes of a fish. So, it’s not necessarily that it grows too big in my tank, because I may like a big fish.

If those attributes change, sometimes so does the owners’ interest in the animal.

Releasing a fish is not the only option when you no longer want it. Weeks says you can euthanize it, but less drastic is taking it back to the pet store.

The Sport fish restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

What happens when well meaning citizens release the “sucker fish” (Plecostomus) from their aquarium into the wild?…they grow and multiply! Picture from Lake Dunlap, TX.

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This is Passport to Texas

Remember this?

He’s gonna get out of here. He’s going to get flushed. What a smart little guy!

We love how in the Pixar animation, Finding Nemo, the aquarium fish escape into the wild. The problem is most fish in Texas aquariums aren’t from here.

Luci Cook-Hildreth is a fisheries biologist, formerly with Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Inland Fisheries Division.

Even really smart people sometimes don’t understand that a fish is not just a fish and water is not just water. They go, “I have a creek in my backyard, and I have a fish that’s too big for my tank. Well, why don’t I just set him free?” And they don’t understand that there’s a lot of biological and ecological ramifications to that decision.

When these fish thrive in Texas waters, they out-compete native fish populations.

Moreover, it’s nearly impossible to control what species of fish people own because of the Internet. Despite state laws, there seems to be a constant supply—and demand—for illegal species. For good reason.

Folks that are interested in selling illegal fish have the potential to make thousands of dollars on these fish. And we can slap a fine on them, for 200 or 300 dollars, and it’s really just the cost of doing business for these folks.

Releasing one fish into the wild might endanger many more.

The Sport Fish Restoration Program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti.

TPW TV Preview — Hands on Habitat

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This is Passport to Texas

Healthy aquatic habitat means good fishing.

We are at Lake Cypress Springs to construct some artificial fish habitat structures.

Fisheries biologist Tim Bister works to enhance declining aquatic habitat.

There is not a lot of structure for fish like largemouth bass or sunfish to relate to underneath the water. And fish need habitat structure in general. Even in reservoirs that left timber standing, over time that timber in the water breaks down and the habitat for fish declines, so we’re at a point where we really need to start doing something with these reservoirs to improve fish habitat.

With supervision from Texas Parks and Wildlife, anglers Kody Corrin and Calvin Lamont, installed artificial habitat of PVC pipes in the lake.

We love fishing, but we both understand that without conservation of the lakes, we are not going to be able to do that. So it is on our part to make sure we help take care of that, take care of the resource that provides our recreation.

Structure is important, but so is food. Rick Ott manages a native aquatic plant nursery at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.

The vegetation is producing food that invertebrates consume, small fish consume the invertebrates, bigger fish eat the smaller fish, and we eat the bigger fish.

Learn about artificial fish habitat next week on the Texas Parks and Wildlife TV series on PBS.

Check your local listings.

The Sport Fish Restoration program supports our series.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, Cecilia Nasti.