Nilgai are not Texas wildlife by origin. They are Asian antelope brought to the King Ranch in the 1930s that pushed through fencing and built a self-sustaining population across the South Texas brush country, and NatureServe lists them as exotic (SNA) rather than assigning any conservation rank. Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge and the Lower Rio Grande Valley sit at the center of the state’s 730 records, with Kleberg and Kenedy counties extending the pattern into King Ranch country further north. Thornscrub cover paired with open brush for forage is exactly the mix nilgai settled into after their release.
Records run heaviest from January through April, then drop off through the summer heat. That’s a plausible read on nilgai movement between cover and forage in cooler months, but it could just as easily track hunting season and ranch access, since most of this range sits on private land. With 730 records, nilgai land solidly in the common bucket for Texas mammals, a genuine reflection of how established the free-ranging population has become in this corner of the state.
