Axis deer, native to the Indian subcontinent, were introduced to the Hill Country of Texas in 1932 as a game meat.
Wolfgang Kaehler/Alamy
The spotted fawn was leaning against the screen door of Daniel Oppenheimer’s back porch near Luckenbach. Oppenheimer found it when he ventured outside on the first morning of last week’s record freeze. The fawn had died in the night.
Oppenheimer’s power, water, and Internet would not be restored for several days. With little else to do, he wandered the land with his dog. He counted thirteen more deer that week. They died under Ashe juniper trees, in a barn, under a carport, in wide-open fields. All were axis, a white-spotted deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. “It was awful watching these animals fall apart over several days,” said Oppenheimer, who works for the Hill Country Alliance, a conservation group.
Kerr County resident photographers Tom Torget and Andy Graham will have worked featured in the annual Hill Country Alliance Calendar, two of only a handful of area photographersâ work selected for the project.
Between March and May, HCA received over 400 entries in the 2020 Hill Country Photo Contest from amateur and professional photographers alike. Submissions, ranging from flittering hummingbirds to the brilliant beauty of fall on the Frio, encapsulated this yearâs theme: The Wild and Wonderful Texas Hill Country.
The Texas Hill Country is a unique region filled with diverse wildlife, clear springs, sprawling rural landscapes, historic towns, and some of the starriest night skies in the country. With a rapidly growing population and increasing development coming into the region, many of these special qualities are at risk of being lost forever.