Project No. 399 -    Present Status and Needs of Vanishing 
                      ---..Species Iin Texas 
 
 
           Assimilation by Taylor during the month of notes from 
questionnaires and correspondence indicates that the collared peccary 
(Pecari angulatus angulatus) while formerly abundant over a great 
portion of Texas, is found now only in southern and middle western 
Texas and along the Rio Grande. It is decreasing everywhere it occurs 
in the State. A continuation by the State of the present laissez faire 
policies may result in its extinction, With legal protectTionand a 
modicum of assistance the animal could be substantially increased. 
An attempt to place protection on the animal at the last legislative 
session failed. Total numbers of peccaries in Texas may be less, at 
present, than the former turn-over (30,000) handled by a single firm 
in San Antonio in. one year ( about 1888). 
 
            Similar  ctudies ofL thc ronýoclope in TexYs show 
 the animals to be more and mome -rttrit  in zcographical range in 
 Texas, although, fortunately, increasing somewhat in limited areas 
 west of the Pecos River. While Bailey, in 1905, recorded the animals 
 from 65 Texas counties, Nelson, in 1924, could get definite reporbs 
 of occurrence from but 46 counties ( 19 less than Bailey's), and 
 our own recent check-up shows antelope in but 31 counties ( 15 losf; 
 than Nelsonts, 34 less than Bailey's). One report of-special interest, 
 from E. J. Compton, land manager for the University of Texas, ind c:Lted

 a drop ( in 1933) from 1,000 to 500 in Hudspeth County due to drcuub. 
 The total number of antelope in the State, however, has probably mir, 
 than doubled in the last 15 years, and now may aggregate between 
 4,000 and 5,000. 
 
            Further studies of abundance, distribution, and ecology 
 of these species are celled for, as information at hand is decidedly 
 fragmentary. 
 
 
 Activity Report, Texas Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, January, 1938.