Wanted: Info On This Marsh Buck (Loose In TX)

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Last November we reported the story (below) on a rare sitatunga that I captured on game camera in Beaumont, TX.

A few weeks later read Ben Broussard submitted this photo showing the same animal about eight miles from where I captured the image.

Has anyone out there in Southeast Texas captured a photo of this animal or had a sighing? It would most likely be somewhere between Beaumont, Bevil Oaks or perhaps even as far as Kountze. I have a feeling it did not make it through the freeze last year but anything is possible. If you have any info please email me at chester@chestermoore.com.

Here’s the story from last year and info on these cool antelopes.

Ben Broussard submitted this game camera photo of what I assume is the same sitatunga around eight miles from the location of my photo.

Sightings of antelopes are not uncommon in Texas. The blackbuck antelope of India is a common resident of exotic game ranches and they are fairly common free-ranging outside of high fences in the Texas Hill Country, n fact, I recently photographed some near Kerrville. African antelopes are rarer but kudu, lechwe, and several gazelle species are found on some ranches. Sitatunga (marsh buck) are a central African forest antelope that are extremely rare even on the many large, high fence game ranches I have been on over the years. In fact, I have never seen one.

That’s why getting a Facebook message that one was hanging out around a residence just outside of Beaumont got me excited. My friend took a couple of photos with her cell phone at her residence and a relative did the research to determine it was indeed a sitatunga. I have kept her anonymous because the sighting was literally behind her house.

I set a Moultrie Mobile cam on the property and within a few hours got a photo of the beautiful antelope. The camera has been there for over a month and it never returned.

According to the Smithsonian National Zoo, sitatunga resides in the swamps, savannas, forests, and forest clearings of central, eastern, and parts of southern Africa, ranging from Cameroon and Central African Republic in the north to northern Botswana in the south.

It is theorized that sitatunga likely occurred alongside waterways throughout western and central Africa as well, but are no longer found in that region.

Hunting ranches in Texas have created a thriving industry that produces a large number of animals. Animals like the scimitar-horned oryx, blackbuck antelope, and axis deer have been sent back to their native lands where they were endangered from these ranches.

A sitatunga hunt would demand anywhere from $10-12,000 according to sources I reached out to so this animal was either from a hunting ranch, a breeder, or perhaps someone who enjoys keeping beautiful exotic hoofstock.

An official with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department said the animal was sighted six miles away two weeks before I got my game camera photo.

Click here to see another photo taken by someone else and learn more about this unique story.

Chester Moore

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