Nilgai

About the Nilgai

Meet the largest Asian antelope - in Texas. The Nilgai, native to India, was released on South Texas ranches in the 1920s and 1930s, and the brush country suited it so well that tens of thousands now roam free between the King Ranch country and the border, far more than a visitor expects to see grazing beside a Valley highway.

Bulls are imposing: up to 600 pounds, slate blue-gray (the name means "blue cow" in Hindi), with short spike horns, a white throat bib, and a wispy neck beard. Cows and calves are tawny orange and hornless. Both are built high in the shoulder with a downhill slope to the rear - a shape like no native Texas mammal.

Nilgai are wary and fast, usually seen striding away through the brush or watching from long range. They graze and browse widely, and their habit of using traditional dung piles makes their presence easy to read even when the animals stay hidden.

For wildlife watchers along the coastal refuges, the Nilgai is a startling bonus species - a piece of India naturalized into the Texas thornscrub.