Travel from the Sahara Desert to the Serengeti; then hop over to India; shuffle to Southeast Asia; then back on over to East Texas! Take an animal World Tour from Bedias, TX at Rack-N-Horns Ranch! Explore 18 unique breeds of exotic animals in one location, and if hunting is the adventure you’re looking for, bring home a prized trophy!
The Nile lechwe is a species of African antelope. They have shaggy coats with the hair on the cheeks particularly long in both sexes, and males may have even longer hair on their necks. Females are golden-brown with white underbellies and no horns. Juveniles also have a golden-brown coat, but the color changes to dark brown in young males when they reach 2-3 years of age. Adult males are blackish-brown to russet with white ‘hoods’ over their shoulders and small white patches over their eyes. The horns of the adult males are strongly ridged at their bases and are curved at the tips.
The Nyala is a beautiful spiral-horned antelope native to southern Africa. The coat is maroon or rufous brown in females and juveniles but grows a dark brown or slate grey, often tinged with blue, in adult males. Females and young males have ten or more white stripes on their sides. Both males and females have a white chevron between their eyes and a long bushy tail white underside. Only the males have horns that are yellow-tipped and have one or two twists.
Rusa deer are distinguished by their large ears, the light tufts of hair above the eyebrows, and antlers that appear large relative to the body size. Their coat is grayish-brown and often appears coarse. Unlike most other deer species, newborn fawns do not bear spots. The antlers of these deer are lyre-shaped and three-tined. Male Rusa deer are bigger than females.
The Aoudad sheep is a type of caprid (goat-antelope) endemic to the rocky mountains of North Africa. Although rare in its native country of North Africa, it was introduced to both North America and southern Europe, as well as other places. Barbary is another name for this animal, a name used by the Berbers, who are natives of North Africa. Males and females both have horns, with those of the male being much longer, thicker, and more heavily ridged compared to the female’s more slender horns. Males are also much heavier, and their curtain of hair is heavier, almost touching the ground. Their short tail, hairless on its underside, has scent glands.
Fallow deer are amongst the prettiest deer to be seen in Europe. Prized for many years as an ornamental species, the fallow deer has a range of coat colors, from red, black and brown to pure white. Adult fallow deer have the same appearance as fawns, with white spots covering their dark chestnut coats. The bucks have impressive beautiful, flattened antlers. Fallow deer have powerful legs, despite them being quite short, and so are extremely fast. The shortness of their legs makes for a very interesting body design overall.
The Axis deer is a beautiful mammal with a spotted body and short tail. Both males and females have markings on their bodies; the markings are white, running in rows along the length of their bodies. The body of Axis deer is bright golden brown in color while the head is a bit lighter shade of the same color. Around their eyes, they have stripes of fur that are paler in color. Males have black spots on their faces and three tines on each of their magnificent antlers. These deer have a dark stripe, running along the length of their back and bordered by a row of spots. The outer parts of their legs are light brown in color while the underparts can be both white and creamy. The Axis deer has a white spot on its throat, which is more noticeable in males. In addition, the tail of the Axis deer has a white underpart.
The Elk is a large deer with short tail and a prominent buff-colored patch on its rump. Together with the Sambar Deer and the Moose, this animal is one of the largest deer species in the world. Males have extremely large antlers, which usually start growing in the spring, being shed in the winter, while females have no antlers. Also, some individuals may grow thin mane on their neck. By the winter, the coat of these animals becomes thicker, in order to protect them from the cold. The winter coat of the elk consists of long, waterproof hairs, which cover thick, wooly under fur of this animal. Newborn elk calves are spotted, losing their spots at the end of summer. The color of their fur depends on habitat and season of the year. Thus, during the summer, their fur is reddish hue while by the winter their coat becomes light grey in color.
Impala is an elegant and magnificent species of antelope. The animal has slender body with the identifying “M”-like marking on the rear. This medium-sized antelope possesses thin, pointed horns with tips, lying far apart from each other. Males of this species are identified by the characteristic “S”-like horns. The elegant limbs of these animals have scent glands behind the ankles. The overall coloration of their fur is red-brown with paler sides. In addition, they have black and white colored areas on their body. Thus, the tail, belly, chin, lips, inside ears as well as the lines above the eyes are colored with white. Meanwhile, black bands cover their thighs, tail, forehead and ear tips.
The Nilgai is the largest Asian antelope and is native to the Indian subcontinent. This sturdy thin-legged antelope is characterized by a sloping back, a deep neck with a white patch on the throat, a short mane of hair behind and along the back ending behind the shoulder, and around two white spots each on its face, ears, cheeks, lips, and chin. A column of coarse hair, known as the “pendant” can be observed along the dewlap ridge below the white throat patch. The tufted tail has a few white spots and is tipped with black. The forelegs are generally longer, and the legs are often marked with white “socks”. While females and juveniles are orange to tawny, males are much darker – their coat is typically bluish-grey. A white stripe extends from the underbelly and broadens as it approaches the rump, forming a patch lined with dark hair. Males have thicker skin on their head and neck that protect them in fights. Only males possess horns, though a few females may be horned as well.
The Red stag, also called hangul, is a subspecies of Central Asian red deer endemic to Kashmir, India. It is found in dense riverine forests in the high valleys and mountains of the Kashmir Valley and northern Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh. In Kashmir, it is found in the Dachigam National Park where it receives protection but elsewhere it is more at risk. In the 1941s, the population was between 3000 and 5000 individuals, but since then habitat destruction, over-grazing by domestic livestock and poaching have reduced population dramatically. Earlier believed to be a subspecies of red deer, a number of mitochondrial DNA genetic studies later had the hangul as a part of the Asian clade of the elk . The IUCN and American Society of Mammalogists, however, includes it in the new grouping of Central Asian red deer, with the Kashmir stag being the type subspecies . According to the census in 2019, there were only 237 hanguls.
Red deer are easy to identify due to their mostly uniform color: dark reddy-brown in summer, turning to grayish-brown in winter. During both seasons the underbelly is paler. The females have a face and throat that are paler than those of the males, particularly in summer. Adult red deer are hardly ever seen with spots, or if so, there are not many of them. The distinguishing feature for stags is their antlers, which in mature adults are long and branched. The longer branches usually sweep backward and have a number of much shorter ones in front.
The White-tailed deer, also called the Virginia deer or whitetail, is named for the white underside of its tail which is visible when it holds its tail erect when it runs. Adults have a bright reddish-brown coat in the summer and in the winter it is a duller grayish brown. The young have white spots on their reddish coats.
Barasingha is a dear species with conspicuously large antlers. Overall, this mammal has as much as 12 antlers. In fact, the name of this species has Hindi origin and means ’12-antlered deer’. Unfortunately, Barasingha is nowadays among the most vulnerable deer species not only in the Indian Peninsula, but also throughout the world. The remaining small population of this species inhabits protected sanctuaries of India.
The blackbuck is a species of antelope with a slender and elegant body. The blackbucks have pointed and delicate hooves. They possess narrow, sheep-like muzzles and short tails. Horns are found only in males. The coloration of this species depends on gender: the back, the sides, and the outer side of the legs are rich dark brown in males and yellowish in females. Both males and females have white underparts including the insides of the legs as well as a white ring around their eyes. During their lives, male blackbucks gradually become darker. The horns of males are ringed at the base, twisted in a spiral with up to four turns.
The Scimitar oryx is an elegant, graceful antelope once widespread across North Africa. The species went extinct in the wild in 2000. These antelopes are almost white with a red-brown chest and black markings on the forehead and down the length of the nose. The white coat helps to reflect the heat of the desert. Calves are born with yellow coats and lack distinguishing marks, which appear later in life. Their pelage changes to adult coloration at 3-12 months old. Both sexes have horns, but those of the females are more slender. The horns are long, thin, and symmetrical; they curve backward and can reach up to 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) on both the males and the females. Their horns are so thin that they can break easily. Scimitar oryx have large, spreading hooves which are well adapted for walking on the sand of their dry habitats.
The Yezo sika deer is one of the many subspecies of the sika deer. The sika that inhabit the island of Hokkaido are indigenous, although it is not known whether they originated there or migrated from the main island of Japan. It is thought that they may have traveled across the strait between the islands. Genetic study has shown that the separation of the sika population occurred less than half a million years ago. It is possible that northern sika deer may be more closely related to yezo sika deer than to other sika deer. The indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido have hunted them for centuries and relied on them as a major food source.
Grant’s zebra is the smallest of the seven subspecies of the plains zebra. This subspecies represents the zebra form of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.
The addax is an antelope of middle size, perfectly suited to living in harsh desert landscapes. A native of the Sahara Desert for thousands of years, it has thrived in regions where few other animals could survive. As with most other antelopes, male and female both have horns, which are slightly spiraled and can be more than a meter long. Their hooves are splayed so that they can travel on sand. Their short, glossy coat is grey-brown in the winter, fading during the summer months to almost white. Out of the antelopes, the addax is the one most adapted to the desert. It drinks very little water, surviving on the moisture from the vegetation it eats.
The blesbok or blesbuck is an antelope endemic to South Africa and Eswatini. It has a distinctive white face and forehead which inspired the name, because bles is the Afrikaans word for a blaze such as one might see on the forehead of a horse.
The gemsbok is a large antelope native to Southern Africa. It is light brownish-grey to tan in color, with lighter patches toward the bottom rear of the rump. Its tail is long and black in color. A blackish stripe extends from the chin down the lower edge of the neck, through the juncture of the shoulder and leg along the lower flank of each side to the blackish section of the rear leg. The gemsbok has a muscular neck and shoulders, and its legs have white ‘socks’ with a black patch on the front of both the front legs and both genders have long, straight horns.
Père David’s deer are large and very rare Asian deer that went extinct in the wild but have been reintroduced in some areas. Their coat is reddish tan in the summer and changes to a dull gray in the winter. There is a mane on the neck and throat and a black dorsal stripe running along their spine. The hooves are large and spreading and make clicking sounds when the animal is moving. Père David’s deer have branched antlers that are unique in that the long tines point backward, while the main beam extends almost directly upward. There may be two pairs per year. The summer antlers are the larger set and are dropped in November, after the summer rut. The second set – are fully grown by January and fall off a few weeks later.
Lechwe are graceful antelopes found in wetlands of south-central Africa. They are golden brown in color with white bellies. Males are darker than females and only males have horns. The horns are long, spiral-structured and are vaguely lyre-shaped. The hind legs of lechwe are somewhat longer in proportion than in other antelopes; this is an adaptation to ease long-distance running in marshy soil.
The Kafue lechwe is a subspecies of the southern lechwe. It is endemic to the Kafue Flats, Zambia. It is listed on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable.
The waterbuck is a large antelope found widely in sub-Saharan Africa. Its shaggy coat is reddish-brown to grey and becomes progressively darker with age. Males are darker than females. There is a cream-colored patch (called “bib”) on the throat. The long, spiral horns, present only on males, curve backward, then forward, and are 55-99 cm (22-39 in) long.
American bison is a large ungulate mammal that once roamed North America in vast herds. The color of its fur varies in the front and back of its body and is different shades of brown. Bison is hunchbacked and it has a long beard on its chin. The forehead is wide and narrow while the neck is short. Hind legs are smaller than front legs, making up a scarp from humpback to tail. Length of hair differs in front and rear, especially in males: front hair is significantly longer than rear hair. Horns of bison are black, bent inward withal upward and pointed.
Black wildebeest are characterized by their white, long, horse-like tail. They also have a dark brown to black coat and long, dark-colored hair between their forelegs and under their belly. Calves are born with shaggy, fawn-colored fur. Males are darker than females. Black wildebeest have bushy and dark-tipped manes that stick up from the back of the neck. Both sexes have strong horns that curve forward, resembling hooks. The horns have a broad base in mature males and are flattened to form a protective shield. In females, the horns are both shorter and narrower. Black wildebeest have scent glands that secrete a glutinous substance in front of the eyes, under the hair tufts, and on the forefeet.
The common beisa oryx, also known as the beisa oryx, is the nominate subspecies of the East African oryx native to the Horn of Africa and Kenya. It is closely related to the fringe-eared oryx. There are four species of oryx, one of which has two distinct subspecies. Although they are very similar in appearance, they have a number of distinct characteristics that allow identification. Common beisa oryx have fringed ears and black tufts of hair that extend past their ears. However, all species of oryx are compact and muscular, with relative long bodies and broad necks. There are not any marked difference between male and female oryx. The common beisa oryx enjoys feeding on a variety of grass species. They feed during the day, when the plants hold the most water. During the dry season, they feed on poisonous Adenium plants.
The Common eland, along with the Giant eland, is one of the biggest antelopes in existence. Despite this, it has enough endurance to trot for an indefinite period and is able to jump from a standstill over an 8-foot fence. Males and females both have horns that form a tight spiral, though females’ horns are generally longer and thinner. Usually a fawn or tawny color, elands become gray or bluish-gray when they get older, and the oldest animals are almost black. Males have a tuft of black hair growing out of their prominent dewlap, the fold of loose skin hanging from their neck. Adult males also possess a mat of hair on their forehead that becomes longer and denser as they get older.
The urial, also known as the arkars or shapo, is a subspecies group of the wild sheep. Six to nine subspecies can be recognized, differing in the size and color of the male’s winter neck-ruff, and the color of its saddle patch and its horn shape. Males have massive horns, the females’ horns being much smaller. Their hair is generally brownish red, and males have white ‘beards’ below their mouth, while females are usually the same color over their whole body, with the exception of their legs near the hooves.
The Jacob is a British breed of domestic sheep. It combines two characteristics unusual in sheep: it is piebald—dark-coloured with areas of white wool—and it is often polycerate or multi-horned. It most commonly has four horns.
Corsican rams are beautiful creatures that tend to have a dark coat with a white belly. However, what they’re most known for is their amazing horns which are either tightly curled or flared, and look great on the walls of any hunting room.
Typically weighing anywhere from 130 to 275 pounds, the Catalina Goat can be found in a variety of colors; black, brown, reddish brown, or even white. Their hair is course with both males and females having beards. Female Catalina Goats weigh less at about 80 pounds or so. Both sexes can stand four to more than five feet tall. The horns of the Catalina Goat, as mentioned above, are their most unique characteristic. They can typically spread anywhere between 30 and 40 inches. The longest Catalina Goat horns on record measured 53 inches! Females usually don’t have horns, but some may have curved horns of just about 4 to six inches.
Mouflon are wild sheep, a species regarded as one of the two original ancestors of modern-day sheep. Their coat is reddish-brown and short-haired, and a dark stripe runs along their back, with lighter colored patches on the side. They are very wary animals. The males have large horns of a sickle shape, prized by many trophy hunters. Females have horns too, but much smaller ones than those of males. The adult males develop a large ruff of coarse long hair on their chest, which is white at the throat, becoming black towards the forelegs.
Due to their intriguing origin, Black Hawaiian rams are more rare than other species of sheep. Pirates and sailors from the Far East occasionally left these animals behind on the Hawaiian Islands so they could enjoy fresh meat on long journeys from across the Pacific. Black Hawaiian rams are very similar in size and horn shape to the Texas Dall; however, they are black in color and occasionally appear to have reddish wool due to sun exposure.
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