Community | September 03, 2011 | 6 comments

Animals threatened by Texas drought

source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/animals-threatened-by-texas-drought.html

JanforGore
The drought in Texas is so bad that a coyote stole a watermelon at night from a man’s garden. The man noticed watermelons were disappearing, so he set up a camera at night and captured an image of the melon bandit. Animals in the huge, parched state are being drive to extremes to find water. You might have seen this video of a baby armadillo there drinking water from a hose. Racoons, feral hogs and other animals are showing up in yards and deer are walking down roads in the middle of the day.

“Texas flora and fauna are adapted to the harsh, extreme conditions. However, this particular drought is testing the limits of native populations,” said water resource official Cindy Loeffler. (Source: Atlanta Constitution Journal) Officials are considering evacuating some endangered species to locations with greater access to water. Months with very little rain have caused some rivers, lakes and ponds to drop by half or more. Eighty-six endangered or threatened species live in Texas and the drought is predicted to continue for months, if not years.

Natural bodies of water in western and nothern Texas are drying up the fastest, so animals nearby are being watched closely. Some species that live in water from springs such as the fountain darte, San Marcos gambusia,Texas blind salamander; San Marcos salamander, Comal Springs Riffle beetle, the Comal Springs Dryopid beetle, Peck’s cave amphipod are all in danger if the flows decrease even more. Some scientists say extreme weather like drought is related to climate change.


Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/animals-threatened-by-texas-drought.html#ixzz1W...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Culture,   Earth and Science,   11 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Water,  Wildlife,  4 more
  3.     
    |

6 comments // Animals threatened by Texas drought // Video

  • OlBlue
    • +1
      OlBlue  

    • I hope people will tolerate animals coming around for food/water and not freak out and start shooting and poisoning. The videos are heartening!

    • 9 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • JanforGore
  • JCJ78
    • 0
      JCJ78  

    • No doubt it is dry in Texas, but coyotes eat watermelons everywhere, at pretty much any opportunity. One of my buddies used to date a girl who's parents owned a highway produce stand, and grew the produce for it. They had to keep miniature donkeys in the watermelon fields and the pumpkin fields to keep the coyotes from eating them (that's right, guard donkeys) pretty much every year. Two years ago, I let another friend's little brother grow some watermelons and pumpkins on a little corner that I could hit with irrigation, and the deer ate almost all his watermelons. They looked like they had been cracked open and eaten with a giant spoon. I still have pics of that field. He had better luck with the pumpkins, but the coyotes ate a few of them. You'd see what looked like a dog turd in the field road, but it would be comprised almost entirely of hair with tiny pieces of bones, and a few pumpkin and watermelon seeds in it. Gift from a coyote.

      On a side note, I my little sister used to have a yellow lab that would also chew a hole thru the rind and eat a watermelon if it was left where he could find it.

    • 9 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • bailey78
    • +2
      bailey78  

    • Yep it is hot and dry here thats for sure. Now thanks to the storm in the Gulf We are getting hot dry winds from the North that are making it even worst. Oh well not a lot we can do about it right now other than to conserve what we have and wait for rain.

    • 9 months ago
more from Community:
from the community

top videos