Texas bison records cluster tightly in the Panhandle’s canyon country. Briscoe County holds 753 of the state’s 847, and 709 fall inside Caprock Canyons State Park, home to the official Texas State Bison Herd descended from Charles Goodnight’s original stock. Everything else is a thin spread: bison turn up in 38 counties in all, each of the others with a single-digit count, from Armstrong and Randall in the Panhandle to Brewster and Presidio in the Big Bend. In a state this large, that says as much about where wildlife watchers go as it does about where the animals actually range.
Reports peak in March and hold up through May, with smaller bumps in July and again in October and November. That shape more likely tracks ranger-led herd tours, cooler visiting weather, and summer travel than a real seasonal swing in bison movement. With 847 records, bison rank among the more frequently recorded Texas mammals, yet NatureServe ranks the species SH, possibly extirpated, in Texas: the wild, free-ranging herds may be gone, and bison survive here mostly as managed herds rather than a self-sustaining wild population.
