January 14th, 2009
Passport to Texas Outdoor Stories from Texas Parks and Wildlife
[Sound of hogs roaming around.]
Opportunistic eaters that they are, a campsite packed with trail mix and hot dogs would be prize winnings to a pig-except that they’re not always welcome. Hearing a raid on his campsite one night, Shea Prihoda tells us about the scare his grunting visitors gave him.
I was camping once and I was sleeping and I woke up because something fell beside my tent and it caved in. So I started hitting and it started growling like a boar. So I started screaming because I was scared cuz it was right by my head. Then, one of the adults, I heard his tent unzip and he threw something, and then we heard a bunch of boars stampeding through our campsite. Anyone that woke up from my screaming heard it.
That night, the pigs and the food were left unscathed; but another encounter is something Shafer…and the pigs…want to avoid
I would kill a pig if I could these days. Let’s go hunting!
[Sound of hogs]
Frightening or fun: we want to hear your memorable outdoor experience. Share it with us at passporttotexas.org.
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
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Wild Boar Recipes
Wild Boar Schnitzel
Wild Game Chili
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Posted in Hunting, Outdoor Stories, Podcasts, Shows | Comments Off on Texas Outdoor Story: Shea Prihoda & the Boars
January 13th, 2009
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program
The Pierce Ranch is great. They’re motivated and they’re, they’re looking to do things from a wildlife and habitat standpoint.
Pierce Ranch is the Lone Star Land Steward Award Winner for the gulf prairies and marshes eco-region. David Forrester, a Parks and Wildlife Biologist, says managing for wildlife and habitat is only part of the equation.
Of course they’re looking at these things from an economic standpoint, too. But they always keep in mind, trying to preserve and enhance what they have.
Through careful planning, and work with Parks and Wildlife, Laurence Armour, III—the great-great grandson of the Ranch’s founder cattleman Shanghai Pierce—maintains the health of the habitat, wildlife and even his wallet.
This is a wetland that we flooded up because it was easy to put water in, and it was a nice little duck hole. It’s not hunted—this is sort of a resting pond for ducks. And then we started seeding with crawfish; and this year is our most productive crawfish pond. And we’re pulling up between two and three hundred pounds a day of crawfish out of this one pond here.
Learn how to nominate a landowner for a Land Steward Award at passportototexas.org.
That’s out show…with support from the Wildlife restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program… for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Conservation, Podcasts, SFWR, Shows | 2 Comments »
January 12th, 2009
Passport to Texas from Texas parks and Wildlife and the Wildlife Restoration Program
Pierce Ranch, the Lone Star Land Steward Award winner in the gulf prairies and marshes eco-region, has a long history of stewardship. Laurence Armour, III.
I’m the fifth generation that has run the ranch; it was started by Shanghai Pierce who was a famous cattle driver back in the 1870s and 80s. He is my great-great-grandfather.
Wetlands development through rice farming—something the Pierce family has done for more than 100 years—also provides habitat for a variety of species.
What the rice field does is provide sort of a wetland ecosystem for those animals that need that kind of ecosystem to survive. As a result, we have a great deal of wildlife that we might not otherwise have.
Bill Stansky with the Texas Rice Industry Coalition for the Environment applauds the family’s native prairie restoration efforts.
Well, this part of the Pierce Ranch is part of a few hundred acres that has never been farmed. And there’s very, very little native prairie left on the Texas coast. It’s just almost gone. And so it’s very valuable, and they harvest seed from this. And sell it to restore prairies all along the gulf coast.
Learn more at passporttotexas.org.
That’s out show…with support from the Wildlife restoration Program… providing funding for the Private Lands and Habitat Enhancement Program… for Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Conservation, Podcasts, SFWR, Shows | 1 Comment »
January 9th, 2009
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
What do zoos and East Texas rivers have in common? Both are playground to the river otter!
We have a lot of water, rivers. Full of fish, full of crawdads. It’s just an ideal habitat out here. It’s just that you’re just generally not going to get to see one.
Gary Calkins is District Leader for the Pineywoods Ecological area.
It’s not like a deer that you can drive by and shine a spotlight. Otters stay primarily in the water. They will come out on land, but it’s only in little specific areas. And so unless you know their behaviors and what areas to go look for sign coming up onto the land. It just makes it really tough to find them.
Imagine, then, trying to get a head count…Every three years, Parks and Wildlife biologists conduct surveys under the 254 bridges in East Texas to track the population and distribution of river otters.
Someone will crawl under that bridge and look in the sand or mud for tracks or scat. And then we’re gonna take a subset of those 254 bridges and instead of surveying them once [during the survey period] we’ll go back repeatedly. We’ll also do transects a hundred meters upstream and downstream and look for sign. And through a big statistical formula you can tell if there are no animals there or if you are just missing finding them.
And finding them is worth the while. Calkins says they’re nature’s answer to the comedian, and in some instances, they’ll actually kind of show off for you.
That’s our show…with research and writing help from Sarah Loden… For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Podcasts, Shows, Wildlife | 41 Comments »
January 8th, 2009
Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife
The Raspberry crazy ant, which is a tramp ant, doesn’t build mounds.
Tramp ants nest under any object on the ground.
Colonies with millions of members mostly nest on the ground, not under it; this makes them annoying to man. Yet, Mike Quinn, an invertebrate, says they can be deadly to flora and fauna, too.
They feed on aphids that are also pests on plants. So, they can dry out the vegetation in an area. They can drive out other ants. Any ground nesting bird is potential prey. Any small mammal on the ground is potential prey., They can asphyxiate chickens. They can get into the nostrils of cattle. It’s such that when the ant is at its peak, from June to November, pets may not want to go outside. Kids don’t want to go outside. You know, we can calculate the economic damage that it may potentially bring, but the ecological damage could be incalculable.
If we are not cautious, we could inadvertently help to expand this exotic species’ range.
They’d be in nursery stock. Round hay bales. Any container that moves could potentially further spread the crazy ant.
You’ll find additional information about Rasberry Crazy Ants on our website, passporttotexas.org; while you’re there, we invite you to leave a comment about this or other shows on our blog.
That’s our show for today…for Texas Parks and Wildlife… I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Podcasts, Shows | Comments Off on Crazy Ants: Affecting Flora and Fauna
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