(LMT) – The deaths are still being counted, but last week’s extreme winter weather in Texas left yet another group of victims in its wake: exotic animals.
Days of freezing temperatures kept the state blanketed in ice and snow, and despite the frenzied efforts of breeders, ranchers, and other caretakers to maintain water and food supplies, the losses grew: Axis deer. Blackbuck and gemsbok antelope. Wildebeest. Even a 58-year-old chimpanzee named Violet, who had been retired to a special refuge after being used in biomedical research.
“We have over $2 million in animals that have been lost, and another half-million in damage to infrastructure,” said Charly Seale, president of the Exotic Wildlife Association in Kerrville, Texas. “It’s an extremely trying time for all of us.” At Valkyrie Ranch, 50 miles east of Austin, Francisco Artes put out hay and alfalfa for the wildebeest he raises for sale to zoos.
It wasn’t enough to sustain two pregnant females and their yearlings. Indeed, the storm was the worst possible scenario for creatures equipped to withstand the extreme temperatures of Africa, with blood vessels in their curled horns that allow heat to escape. “That works the exact opposite in the cold.
The blood in the horns get cold and goes into their brains, and they were having seizures and dying,” Artes explained this week. “We had no way of keeping the animals warm. We were out in the blizzard, trudging around – and even when we could find the animals, we couldn’t do much to help them.” READ MORE
