American Animals Texas

The large US state of Texas is home to 29 million people and is one of the largest states in the US by both population and land mass. Its terrain varies from mountain forests to extensive coastline. Texas has over 800 different habitats and its vast variety of wild animals includes 540 species of birds and 142 species of mammals, amphibians, and others.

The state of Texas proudly calls itself “the battiest state in the nation” and is home to 32 of 47 species of bats that are native to the US

Official Large State Mammal

Texas longhorn (pictured above)

Official Small State Mammal

Nine-banded armadillo

Official State Bird

Northern mockingbird

Official Flying State Mammal

Mexican free-tailed bat

The biggest predators in the state are wolves, cougars, and ocelots.

Among its rodents are pocket gophers, tree squirrels, porcupines, and nutria.

The most common forest animals include bobcats, badgers, and black bears.

Among birds there are kestrels, finches, owls, and bald eagles.

In the mountain areas you’ll find river otters, flying squirrels, and red-shouldered hawks.

The arid desert areas have many of the world’s rarest amphibians and reptiles among them the nine-banded armadillo, Texas rat snake, and the short-linked skink lizard.

Texas is also home to the Northern black-bellied whistling duck, the Gulf stone crab and the Texas blind salamander.

With more than 350 miles of coastline including South Padre Island the world’s largest barrier island there are many marine animals making their home here.

Among them are fiddler crabs, roseate spoonbills, alligators, and sea turtles.

Bird City Texas is a statewide program that is great for bird lovers. The program encourages birders of all levels in the entire state to create bird sanctuaries and feeding spaces. Visitors can get wildlife and birding tours and get taken to places where they can see such birds as egrets, tanagers, whooping cranes, kingfishers, green parakeets, chachalacas, elf owls, and other of the country’s rarest birds.

The Bracken Cave Preserve, near San Antonio, has the largest bat colony in the world with over 20 million roosting Mexican free-tail bats. Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin is the country’s largest urban bat colony. There are many official bat watching sites in the state.

Some of the bats in Texas are the Mexican long-nosed bat, big brown bat, Western mastiff bat, and Southern yellow bat.

Sea Turtle, Inc. is on South Padre Island and was originally formed to preserve the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. The program has a hatching release program open to the public.

Prairie Dog Town is a sanctuary for black-tailed prairie dogs. These animals are considered a keystone species which means many members of the same ecosystem depend on them for the proper ecological balance.

Tiger Creek Animal Sanctuary in Tyler, Texas is a sanctuary for exotic big cats that were unfortunately bought as pets and then abandoned, abused, or neglected.

Among the rarest animal in Texas is the ringtail. It is the size of a cat and has a long raccoon-like tail. They are nocturnal animals and great mousers. They were called “miner’s cats” because they were adopted by miners as pets. Ringtails helped clear the rats out of the mine. Today it is illegal to keep a wild ringtail as a pet.

Among the strangest animals only found in Texas are:

Black-tailed jack rabbit

Texas horned lizard

Lightning whelk

Black-tailed prairie dog

Many different kinds of wildlife make their home in the mountainous parts of Texas. The state has over 2,000 hills, peaks, and mountains. Its largest mountains can be found in West Texas in the Davis, Guadalupe, and Franklin Mountains. The highest point is Guadalupe Peak rising 8,751 feet above sea level.

In the mountains you can find wildlife like black bears, mountain lions, porcupines, mule deer, barn owls, bobcats, elk and others.