Today, Louise and I decided to go for a drive. It rained "cats and dogs" last night and today it is cloudy and gloomy! All in all, it's a good day for a drive.
We headed north on US 77 toward Raymondville and then turned east, headed for Port Mansfield. I had been there but Louise never had. Just a couple of miles out of Port Mansfield, Louise said, "Look out the left side of the Jeep!". I looked and saw the strangest herd of animals I had ever seen. They resembled deer or antelope but were bigger and had faces like cows. I know what you are thinking but this was at 10 a.m. and I was completely sober.
As luck would have it, I had neglected to bring the camera and couldn't get close enough to them to take a picture with the phone. They were very skittish!
When we got into Port Mansfield, I stopped at the first convenience store we came to and I asked the clerk what we had seen. He said that they were Nilgai, a relative to antelopes. Since I dont have a picture, you will have to "Google" it to see what they look like.
A little research revealed that they were brought to the US from India in the mid-20th century to be hunted. As often happens, some of them escaped and they are now established in South Texas with a population of about 30-40,000 animals. They have always thrived in India because they look a bit like cows in the face and Hindus, of course, think cows are sacred.
A short time later, we were doing some geocaching in Port Mansfield and found a new (to us) species of deer. These animals were almost tame but I don't know what they are. I figure one new species a day is enough!
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