Rare animals?

[okrattler]

I saw a picture of a Spotted Skunk the other day and realized it's been over 25 years since I last saw a live one. I saw one dead on the side of the highway probably 6 years ago. Matter of fact those are the only two I've ever seen in my life. It's funny what we can remember and I vividly recall seeing that funny looking skunk doing a hand stand. I was little when I saw it but it standing up on its front legs stuck with me. Odd how some things from that long ago just stick with you.

What's something you haven't seen in years?

[Walker]

Horned toad in South texas. Saw a bunch in New Mexico, and cedar waxwings

[Drycreek3189]

An honest politician.

[ACbob]

Originally Posted by Drycreek3189

An honest politician.

All right, let's not devolve into fictional characters.

[okrattler]

Originally Posted by Drycreek3189

An honest politician.

Heck, you have a better chance of seeing Sasquatch. I ain't ever seen one of those.

[okrattler]

Originally Posted by Walker

Horned toad in South texas. Saw a bunch in New Mexico, and cedar waxwings

See horned toads fairly often but I bet it's been every bit of 15 years since I last saw a Waxwing. I hadn't thought about those in quite a while honestly.

[okrattler]

Up until a few years ago I had never seen a Wood Duck. Saw three of them. Prettiest ducks I've ever seen by far.

[RifleBowPistol]

Javelina, horn toads, blue quail, bob white quail, been a very long time since I last got to hunt blues, I really miss hunting those things. Another thing I have not seen in years, are some kind of huge toad, that buries it' self deep in the mud. I have only seen them once or twice 40 something years ago, when I was a kid, at my grandparent's house. It had rained a lot, for weeks, the ground was very saturated, they had around 35 acers on the Nueces River, on the edge of Corpus. But a crew came out and started digging the ditch out, much deeper in front of their place to improve drainage. Afterwards, there were huge toads all along where they dug out that ditch. Those toads must have been buried 3 ft. or more down. These things were about the size of 6" to 8" diameter plate. My grandparents had never seen those toads previously. I had figured out, when it rained, you could drop vegetable cans in the ditches, leave them there for an hour or so, then come back and pick them up, and usually have a crawdad in the can. So I was trying to catch crawdads, with cans, then found a huge toad, caught that. Then quickly realized there was another, and then quickly realized there were a bunch of them all around the freshly dug out ditch. Only saw those toads, after one or two monsoon seasons we had. Somewhere there is an old picture of me holding one of those toads.

Other things I have not seen in may years, are hognose snakes, water moccasins, and blue indigos. I don't miss the moccasins, and their attitudes. Other things I have not seen in years, are what we used to call glass snakes, supposedly they are actually legless lizards. They grow to about 1 1/2' long, their tails will break off easily, but they will regrow new tails. They are kind of strange things.

Of the things I listed most have dropped in population some to a lot, but at the same time, I don't live or hunt in the same areas I used to, when growing up, so that's the biggest reason I don't see those critters anymore.

I have never seen a spotted skunk, or at least that I can remember. Now I have pictures of a skunk that is more white than black. It was basically a white skunk, with a black stripe. I wanted to shoot it and get it mounted, but never actually saw it in person, only on camera. It showed up a few times to my feeder.

[RifleBowPistol]

Originally Posted by Drycreek3189

An honest politician.

You have seen honest politicians in years past?!!! Where did you ever seen an honest politician, oh wait, I forgot about Regan, I guess there were a few.

[BayouCat]

Box turtles. Used to pick those up as a kid all the time. Haven't seen one on the road in ages.

[curtintex]

Originally Posted by Drycreek3189

An honest politician.

I remember when I was a kid, going to the voting box with my dad. A man out front said to my dad, "Ray, I want you to vote for my friend for State Representative" to which my dad replied, "Why should I vote for him?". The man said, "Because he's honest", to which my dad replied, "How about I just vote for the other guy so your friend can stay honest". That stuck with me.

[doghouse]

Horned Toad and Bobwhite Quail in Mills county. In their replacement we now have hogs.

[flywise]

Originally Posted by doghouse

Horned Toad and Bobwhite Quail in Mills county. In their replacement we now have hogs.

Or Bell, Lampasas etc

[kerrbow]

Ringtail. Been a lot of years since I saw one in the wild. Neat critter.

[txtimetravler]

I saw a ringtail on the San Saba river last month. First one I’ve seen in 20 years since I saw one in a deer blind in Segovia/junction area.

[okrattler]

I ain't seen a Swift Fox in quite some time. Don't really even see Red Foxes very often. Too many dadgum coyotes around. Between those and vehicles they don't stand a chance.

[Bryan2014]

Originally Posted by Walker

Horned toad in South texas. Saw a bunch in New Mexico, and cedar waxwings

Feel like I see waxwings fairly common, very recognizable call and fly around in groups

[RR 314]

I remember when armadillos were everywhere. Dang things have taking a bumper beating over the years I guess. While they are not rare, they certainly are not in the numbers of my youth.

[Drycreek3189]

Originally Posted by RifleBowPistol

You have seen honest politicians in years past?!!! Where did you ever seen an honest politician, oh wait, I forgot about Regan, I guess there were a few.

Ronald Reagan was who I had in mind. Bush was probably honest, but dumber than a box of rocks. (Which is not rare for a politician)

[Kingfisher789]

I saw a black fox last week. Ran across the road near the quarry in Jarrell.

[Aggiehunter08]

A 160 + LF buck that’s not in South Texas, Midwest, Mexico or Canada.

[Wellborn Papa]

Ringtail, Bob White, Horned Toads, were common in Bastrop County when I was growing up, but haven't seen any in many years.

[Aggiebush]

Bigfoot, they used to be everywhere!

[GarGuy]

Originally Posted by Aggiehunter08

A 160 + LF buck that’s not in South Texas, Midwest, Mexico or Canada.

I saw one of those this year.

[S-3 Ranch]

Bob white quail, horned toads, desert tortoises

[Aggiehunter08]

Originally Posted by GarGuy

I saw one of those this year.

There are no big deer in East Texas

[lovemylegacy]

Black Panther

[GarGuy]

Originally Posted by Aggiehunter08

There are no big deer in East Texas

True. I killed the last one.

[Strummer]

Walking sticks or fence post lizard. Use to see them all the time .

[Draco]

Originally Posted by flywise

Or Bell, Lampasas etc

Kirby, I have bob whites here on our place 6 miles south of Lampasas.

[Draco]

Originally Posted by RifleBowPistol

Javelina, horn toads, blue quail, bob white quail, been a very long time since I last got to hunt blues, I really miss hunting those things. Another thing I have not seen in years, are some kind of huge toad, that buries it' self deep in the mud. I have only seen them once or twice 40 something years ago, when I was a kid, at my grandparent's house. It had rained a lot, for weeks, the ground was very saturated, they had around 35 acers on the Nueces River, on the edge of Corpus. But a crew came out and started digging the ditch out, much deeper in front of their place to improve drainage. Afterwards, there were huge toads all along where they dug out that ditch. Those toads must have been buried 3 ft. or more down. These things were about the size of 6" to 8" diameter plate. My grandparents had never seen those toads previously. I had figured out, when it rained, you could drop vegetable cans in the ditches, leave them there for an hour or so, then come back and pick them up, and usually have a crawdad in the can. So I was trying to catch crawdads, with cans, then found a huge toad, caught that. Then quickly realized there was another, and then quickly realized there were a bunch of them all around the freshly dug out ditch. Only saw those toads, after one or two monsoon seasons we had. Somewhere there is an old picture of me holding one of those toads.

Other things I have not seen in may years, are hognose snakes, water moccasins, and blue indigos. I don't miss the moccasins, and their attitudes. Other things I have not seen in years, are what we used to call glass snakes, supposedly they are actually legless lizards. They grow to about 1 1/2' long, their tails will break off easily, but they will regrow new tails. They are kind of strange things.

Of the things I listed most have dropped in population some to a lot, but at the same time, I don't live or hunt in the same areas I used to, when growing up, so that's the biggest reason I don't see those critters anymore.

I have never seen a spotted skunk, or at least that I can remember. Now I have pictures of a skunk that is more white than black. It was basically a white skunk, with a black stripe. I wanted to shoot it and get it mounted, but never actually saw it in person, only on camera. It showed up a few times to my feeder.

The white skunk you saw was a hog nosed skunk. Their back is solid white and the hair hangs almost all the way to the ground. They are bigger than striped skunks as well.

[Vargas 1695]

Red wolf

[taltexan]

I miss the bob whites here in Wood County. Been many years since I’ve seen a wild covey.

[Louis]

Horned toads, Bob white quail and robins

[Louis]

Never been an honest politician since the beginning of time

[bullets13]

I killed a buck with a white nose this year. One taxi had never seen one, another only 3 in 25 years.

[Reel Screamer]

Firefly’s. Where did they go?

[MASTERS]

A black whitetail, blonde coon, and a white squirrel. Been a minute since I’ve seen the likes.

[okrattler]

Originally Posted by Kingfisher789

I saw a black fox last week. Ran across the road near the quarry in Jarrell.

Saw one of those back in 2020. Hunted hard for it but only ended up getting a regular Red Fox. I really don't care to shoot another but I would if I seen that black Fox again. That's pretty dang cool and very rare.

[stevieray54]

There are 2 or 3 Zoo’s in Texas working on repopulating the Horned toad lizard. They raise the lizard get the eggs and hatch them and have started turning them loose.

[Walker]

Originally Posted by stevieray54

There are 2 or 3 Zoo’s in Texas working on repopulating the Horned toad lizard. They raise the lizard get the eggs and hatch them and have started turning them loose.

San Jose Island has a good population of horned toads. They established a no pesticide program many years ago.

[Brute Killer]

A shrew. First and last one I saw was in the early 80's.

[Highbridge hand]

Seen coatimundi a few times camped on the lower Pecos. Suckers would pilfer through our chuck box at night. I watched 2 of them, one holding the chuck box lid open, the other inside throwing Oreos out like he bought them.

[BTLowry]

Quail and horn toads in Smith county

Had good numbers of both 35 years ago

[Gerald G]

Originally Posted by Highbridge hand

Seen coatimundi a few times camped on the lower Pecos. Suckers would pilfer through our chuck box at night. I watched 2 of them, one holding the chuck box lid open, the other inside throwing Oreos out like he bought them.

LoL

[Uncle Saggy]

Originally Posted by Louis

Horned toads, Bob white quail and robins

Funny you say Robins…… wife and I talked about that about a month ago. Didn’t see any this year


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[Uncle Saggy]

Originally Posted by Reel Screamer

Firefly’s. Where did they go?

We had them all summer


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[Snowflake Killa]

Originally Posted by Uncle Saggy

Funny you say Robins…… wife and I talked about that about a month ago. Didn’t see any this year


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It's a little early for Robin's down here seem like January is a good month

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[glen]

Every time I go on the Gulf I always wonder if I can get lucky enough and see a Rice’s Whale. I heard a party boat had a confirmed sighting last month.

[muzzlebrake]

I saw a yellow headed bed thrasher this morning.