Name these things?

[Tom]

The pictures were taken yesterday in the Texas hill country area.

What do you think?

 

[280]

4h projects? very very elusive looking

 

[FEW]

The thing in the middle looks like a cross between a water buffalo and a domestic cow.

 

[1_pointer]

Eland
Water Buffalo
Wildebeast

 

[Tom]

1_pointer, I think you're right, but I never saw a blonde water buffalo, have you? I guess I could ask the ranch about it sometime and see if it is a cross.

 

[1_pointer]

Could be a color phase due to cross-breeding. Same as they get certain colors in dogs. However, I wonder if the fact that it's a juvenile and in a totally different environment to contribute to the color difference.

 

[Tom]

Here's a web page, Am.Waterbuffalo Assoc.
http://www.americanwaterbuffalo.org/photogallery.htm

There's a picture from Montana of one brown one there in the winter group with a bunch of black ones.

280 is right too, maybe they are 4h projects in Montana, the water buffalo.

 

[280]

4h projects in Montana, big game trophies in Texas,,,huh

 

[Tom]

Seems like some people up there try and tame them and people down here try to keep them wild.

 

[280]

wild=fenced,,,huh?

 

[Tom]

Its not a fence like for pets. Its a fence, like putting them on an island. They still run around a lot, act wild a lot.

Who knows, we could probably take one of your 4H project animals, if its young, move it to a more wild enviroment, chase it around, shoot at it, not feed it by hand from a bucket, and it might go back to being wild.

Here's a question for you 280 and others. Suppose a biologist determined a group of deer could live in 100 acres, like some places here, we have a deer every 10 acres in the free range of some counties.

Now, suppose we dig a mote they are unlikely to cross around the 100 acres, suppose its an island, suppose we high fence it. Do those deer become not wild then? I think they become more restricted or impaired in distant movement, but remain wild, if they live on their own in there.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 09-10-2003 08:57: Message edited by: Tom ]</font>