The Flora of Kerr County, Texas
<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0><script> (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-47423994-1', 'fortunecity.ws'); ga('send', 'pageview'); </script> <center> <br> <div> <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://ad.broadcaststation.net/ads/show_ad.php?width=728&height=90"></script> </div> </center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="128d4c00dduajq.gif"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Flora of Kerr County, Texas</B></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mosses"><U>The Mosses</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Ferns"><U>The Ferns</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lower Monocots"><U>Lower Monocots</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Grasses"><U>The Grasses</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id48.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Higher Monocots"><U>Higher Monocots</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dicots I"><U>Dicots I</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Oaks"><U>The Oaks</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Legumes"><U>The Legumes</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mints"><U>The Mints</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id69.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dicots II"><U>Dicots II</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id70.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Composites"><U>The Composites</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id68.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Unidentified"><U>The Unidentified</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Algae"><U>The Algae</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Fungi"><U>The Fungi</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id77.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Microbes"><U>The Microbes</U></A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Go back to:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/egret/290/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/eg"><U><B>The Fauna and Flora of Kerr County, Texas</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <B>Go here for:</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/kapoor/96/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/kap"><U><B>The Fauna and Flora of Trinity County, Texas</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>and the Lake Livingston area</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THIS SITE IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION </B></div> <div> <B>IT IS USABLE, BUT PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ONLY A FRACTION </B></div> <div> <B>OF THE DOCUMENTATION IS POSTED AT THIS TIME.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="12e10100.jpg" border=0 width="16" height="16" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </B><B><U>INTRODUCTION</U></B></div> <bR> <div> Welcome to Kerr County -- a rich biological meeting ground of east and west, north and south. On this site i hope to provide four things: first a guide to locations where the fauna and flora of the county may be observed; a compendium of the species in several major groups of that have been found in the county, and as much as can be gleaned from the other groups; a series of links for folks wishing to find additional information on the fauna and flora of the county; and as complete a listing as possible of all the publications dealing with the fauna and flora of Kerr County for those wishing to do further research.</div> <bR> <div> Any publication that deals with a dynamic resource is in itself dynamic. This is not a final document now and never will be. The author/webmaster hopes that people who find things different than those listed here will contact him and provide details of identity, location, date and time. Further, rare species are coded in the listings, and it is desired that full details, photographs and recordings be made on the spot in order to help document these species. In the case of birds, documentation of this sort should be provided to the Texas Bird Records Committee, c/o Mark Lockwood, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, 4200 Smith School Road, Austin, Texas 77844. Also, any species not found on these lists and considered rare overall in the state of Texas should be documented in this fashion as well. Information on other species new to the county can be sent to the author and will be disseminated to the appropriate authorities. Thanks for your help on this. </div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="12e10100.jpg" border=0 width="16" height="16" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </B><B><U>WHAT'S SPECIAL ABOUT KERR COUNTY?</U></B></div> <bR> <div> The Texas Hill Country is an area of high endemism, meaning that species have evolved here in isolation from other species because of the unique environmental character of the ladnscape. Water is scarce, much of it isolated in springs and spring-fed rivers. Such isolation has led to the evolution of a dozen species of salamanders found in single springs and nowhere else in the world; one of those, an as yet unnamed new species, is found nowhere in the world but Kerr County; and another Hill Country endemic land salamander can be found here as well. Four turtles are found nowhere in the world but the Texas Hill Country and its river drainages, and three of those can be found in Kerr County -- Cagle's Map Turtle, Guadalupe Softshell and Texas Slider. A number of plants are found nowhere else in the world but the Texas Hill Country, including one of the world's rarest cacti, Tobusch's Fishhook Cactus, once thought extinct until rediscovered in the late 1980s. Perhaps best known to naturalists the world over are two special birds, one of which, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, nests nowhere in the world but the Hill Country, with perhaps its largest population in Kerr County. Why only here? Because it depends on another near-endemic plant, the Ashe Juniper (known colloquially as Mountain Cedar, or just plain Cedar to ranchers) for nest material. The other special bird is the Black-capped Vireo, which stretches only barely beyond the Hill Country for nesting, with a few pairs in Mexico and Oklahoma (and formerly in Kansas). It too is dependent on specialized habitat, patchy in nature, which limits its distribution. Certain grazing practices all but eliminate this bird, but it has been discovered that intense management for White-tailed Deer on ranches devoted to trophy hunting concurrently enhances the habitat for Black-capped Vireos. There are six very large and significant populations of this bird known at this time, two in Kerr County. The areas include Kickapoo Caverns State Natural Area (Kinney County), Devil's River State Natural Area (Val Verde County), Ft. Hood (Bell and Coryell Counties), Kerr Wildlife Management Area (Kerr County) and private ranches in Uvalde and Kerr Counties. Small but accessible populations are present on several other state parks as well, and Golden-cheeked Warblers can often be found in these same properties if canyons with proper vegetation and water are present.</div> <bR> <div> The second aspect of Kerr County that makes it so rewarding as a wildlife paradise is that it forms a biological junction of east and west, and north and south. This is evident in all groups but is best demonstrated by birds. This short chart illustrates breeding and summering (some of them rare) species of related affinities from these faunas. A similar chart could be designed showing similar relationships in migrants and in wintering birds.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <U>East and North South and West </U></div> <div> Blue Jay Western Scrub-Jay</div> <div> Carolina Wren Bewick's Wren</div> <div> Chipping Sparrow Rufous-crowned Sparrow</div> <div> Belted Kingfisher Green Kingfisher</div> <div> Great Crested Flyctacher Ash-throated Flycatcher</div> <div> Indigo Bunting Painted Bunting</div> <div> Orchard Oriole Scott's Oriole</div> <div> Common Grackle Great-tailed Grackle</div> <div> Red-shouldered Hawk Zone-tailed Hawk</div> <bR> <div> Third, Kerr County is on the frontier. The east end of the county lies close to the increasingly suburban areas of San Antonio, and the county seat, Kerrville, is the last truly large city (as defined by its array of fast food joints) going west until you reach the Pecos and Fort Stockton, and from there it's all the way to El Paso before you reach another city of size. The east county, in the valley of the Guadalupe River, also is home to agriculture in the form of milo/sorghum, corn and hay farms. The west county is quite different. Providing the geological divide between the watersheds of the Guadalupe, Pedernales, Medina, Frio and Sabinal Rivers, the hills and ridges reach over 2100' in elevation. Ranching, on very large ranches, is the name of the game there, and the country is wild. Mountain Lions use the canyons for cover, and occasionally even venture into town. There are a couple of recent Black Bear records, likely juvenile males wandering out of the Sierra del Carmen and associated ranges in Mexico. Rattlesnakes can be common in some areas. All of which adds up to rough and scenic country good for wildlife, and good for those who respectfully want to see it.</div> <bR> <div> The last, off the wall, reason Kerr County is a wildlife paradise is that it is the world center of the exotic game industry. A drive in any backroads area of the county is likely to produce observations of a number of large mammal and bird species from around the globe. Ostensibly this all began through the efforts of the YO Ranch (second only to the King Ranch as a legendary big-time Texas ranch), and the King Ranch (of whom some heirs owned large portions of the county), both of which introduced large numbers of game animals for hunting purposes. The idea was to provide safari-style hunts without the expense, paperwork, and foreign danger of hunts abroad. This turned out to be a huge success, and the industry has now spread across Texas and other states. Kerr County remains the center though. In addition to hunting, some species were brought in in an attempt to look for new sources of domestic and feeder livestock. While those programs generally failed (the Emu is a classic, recent, example), there is one indirect exception. The large Axis Deer of India and southeast Asia (also known as the Chital) was brought in for hunting purposes, but escaped in some numbers and was so successful at large that it may rival numbers of White-tailed Deer in the county. A whole industry has developed around commercial hunting operations harvesting these large deer from area ranches and selling the meat, reputed to be the tastiest of all venison, to upscale restaurants. Another offshoot of the exotic livestock industry is that a number of landowners, ranchers, and other individuals have taken to devoting their efforst to the collecting and conservation of rare species. Due to the efforts of the YO Ranch, among others, the populations of Blackbuck, Scimitar-horned Oryx, and Addax in Kerr County may exceed their populations in the wild in all of their natural range. Some of these animals are being used to restock revitalized native habitat. In addition, local ranchers are also raising groups of the rarest wild equids in the world in Ker County. Present are small herds of Grevy's Zebra, Hartmann's Mountain Zebra, Onagers and Przewalski's Horse, in addition to the more common Grant's and Damara Zebras. You might also see numbers of exotic birds being raised by local collectors (a word of warning to birders). These include (but aren't by any means limited to): Canada Geese, Mallards, Whooper, Trumpeter, Black, Black-necked, Mute and Coscoroba Swans, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Cinnamon Teal, Redhead, Egyptian Geese, Muscovy, Peafowl, Emu, Rheas and three races of Ostrich. </div> <bR> <div> In some ways, Kerr County is a giant zoo, wildlife park and wilderness all rolled up into one. Please enjoy your visit, but respect the wildlife by respecting the landowners.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <!-- Start Gem Build Your Own Web Gem --> <!-- Start Bravenet.com Service Code --> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://pub43.bravenet.com/counter/code.php?id=339979&usernum=3690392136&cpv=2"></script> <!-- End Bravenet.com Service Code --> <!-- End Gem Build Your Own Web Gem --> </div> <bR> <div> <B>The latest update of this website was on 8 September 2003</B></div> <bR> <div> This site and all of its contents, including photographs (unless otherwise accredited), are the exclusive original work of Tony Gallucci for <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#003333" FACE="Century Gothic" ><I><B> THE FAUNA OF KERR COUNTY, TEXAS,</B></I></FONT><I><B> </B></I>and is under the protection of U.S. and applicable World Copyright.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> © 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2001 & 2002 Tony Gallucci</div> <bR> <div> Additional photographs used on this site are by (and courtesy of) Susan Sander and are so acknowledged.</div> <bR> <div> This site was first published on the internet on 16 May 2002</div> <bR> <div> The public redirect is <U>http://www.flying.to/KerrFauna</U> or <U>http://flying.to/KerrFauna</U></div> <bR> <div> The masked webname is <U>http://www,fortunecity.com/victorian/sculptured/36/</U></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Questions, additions, and corrections are welcome to:</div> <bR> <div> tony gallucci</div> <div> p.o. box 6</div> <div> camp verde, texas 78010-5006</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:hurricanetg@hotmail.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:hurricanetg@hotmail.com"><U><U>hurricanetg@hotmail.com</U></U></A></div> <div> <U>http://fly.to/SevenBullsBoy</U></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>