Concho Valley Critters
Regular readers of this blog know I have a great fondness for desert plants and spend many hours on backroads near San Angelo in search of a species I hadn't seen before. I do this with some caution because a surprising variety of animals call the Western Concho Valley home. Perhaps two of the most dangerous of the four-legged variety are mountain lions and javelinas...
The mountain lion, Felix concolor to biologists, has several popular names: puma, panther, and cougar being among them. For the most part, our local mountain lions are happy to roam the mesas on the outskirts of town. They wander close to the city occasionally. In 1998, a couple of panthers meandered to rangeland near an elementary school and made a meal of deer making a meal of mesquite. Joggers are surprised on occasion by large and curious cats. I myself have come across the carcasses of unfortunate herbivores who met the wrong feline in the rough country...
Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPW) says "aggressive encounters" between humans and javelinas (aka collared peccaries aka Dicotyles tajacu) are rare. This is a good thing since humans rarely fare well when they do occur. Javelinas travel in family groups. Their undeserved reputation for being ferocious has more to do with poor eyesight and a tendency to react violently when startled by a person they did not see coming...
Javelinas inhabit arid and semi-arid parts of the state, primarily the South Texas Plains, Trans-Pecos, and Western Edwards Plateau. Prickly pear cactus, lechuguilla, mesquite beans, sotol, and the occasional insect are preferred dining options at the Cafe Javelina. Avoid planting tulips, TPW advises, unless you want to attract peccaries who find the bulbs quite tasty...
Less threatening to humans than big cats and big pigs are cute little bunny rabbits. The Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii) is but one of several species of rabbits hopping across Southwest Texas rangelands near San Angelo. Peter Cottontails distant cousins rarely need to drink water, getting most of the moisture they need from either dew or the plants they chew. They, if I might be indelicate, are also coprophagic since this allows for greater nutritional efficiency...
Cave Myotis (Myotis velifer) bats spend their daylight hours in, not surprisingly, the crevices and caves of the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos regions of Texas. They hibernate during the winter months. In the warm season, swarms of Cave Myotis appear at dusk, fluttering and flying erratically, using echolation (incorrectly but popularly called bat radar) to find flies and beetles, pausing to dip and sip when they come across a stock tank or other watering hole. Their primary habitat, TPW says, is in areas dominated by creosote bush, paloverde, brittlebrush, or cactus. Colonies of 1000 to 5000 Cave Myotis are not uncommon. Nor is it rare for Cave Myotis to share cave space with other bats species. The exception to their social nature is the Mexican Free-tailed Bat which does not tolerate their presence...
Birdwatchers traveling through Tom Green County on their way to or from San Angelo will see the silhouettes of hawks and vultures dotting the skies. Many area residents rarely see more than these winged predators unless they take the time to sit silently at the State Park or pull to the side of the road in the ranch and farm country surrounding the city. According to people who keep track of these things, some 356 species of birds have been seen in the Concho Valley. Among these are the Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata) and Chihuahuan Raven (Corvus cryptoleucus). Both are found in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States and Mexico. The habitat of C. squamata, also called Blue Quail or Cottontop, parallels that of the distribution of the desert plant species belonging to genera Prosopis (e.g., mesquite), Condalia (e.g., javelina bush), and Cylindropuntia (e.g., Pencil Cactus)...
Chihuahuan Ravens use mesquite twigs to build their nests. Their young hatch in May, the wet and green time of year, when insects abound in the moistened ground. As adults, the birds will add small reptiles, carrion, cereal grains, and cactus fruit to their meals for a more well-rounded diet...
Each autumn, hundreds of thousands and more hundreds of thousands of Monarch Butterflies (not illustrated here) pass through the Concho Valley enroute to their winter home in Mexico. The Monarch is sometimes nicknamed the "Milkweed Butterfly" since the only thing its larvae can eat are milkweed plants. Such a diet has a survival benefit for the species: milkweed is poisonous to most animals and birds. Any critter foolish enough to dine on a Monarch is likely to suffer gastric distress as a result. Nature being what it is, the Viceroy Butterfly mimics the Monarch's appearance to make itself less attractive to predators...
Vinegaroons (Mastigoproctus giganteus), despite their appearance, are not actually scorpions even though they're sometimes called Giant Whiptail Scorpions. They are arachnids who belong to the order Thelyphonida. Although they are not venomous, they defend themselves by spraying a combination of acetic and octanoic acid which smells like particularly foul vinegar. Enough said about their suitability as sleeping bag companions...
As a child, I was like many boys. Reptiles fascinated me. As an adult, I still find them intriguing. Three of the many Concho Valley species that I've personally encountered are the Roundtailed Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma modestum), the Little Striped Whiptail (Cnemidophorus inornatus), and the rattler known as Desert Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii). There is nothing to describe the pleasant surprise of seeing a darting bluetailed lizard on the long hike to my mailbox or coming across a fat and very sassy "horny toad" sunning in the caliche garden behind my house. Meeting Mr Desert Massasauga is another sort of surprise entirely...
The following links can introduce you to more of our Concho Valley Critters. The Sibley Nature Center represents the arid Llano Estacado country above the Concho Valley. It is an exceptionally well done site and deserving of many visitors. The "angelo.edu" link contains dozens of photographs of different corners of the local State Park at varying times of year...
San Angelo Nature Center:
http://www.sanangelotexas.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B00031FE3-CDFA-4F45-A7FE-06E279DEB6DA%7D
San Angelo State Park:
Sibley Nature Center (Midland):
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| In Texas, the Desert Massasauga rattles its way through the Concho Valley, Llano Estacado, Trans-Pecos, and southern Rio Grande Plains |
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Note: All photographs located through Google Images, without source information except as noted: none
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