Like feral hogs, Texas' exotic axis deer can be destructive, but they are a delicious addition to the state's hunting scene

Brian Gilroy loves everything about exotic animals. The CEO and co-founder of WildLife Partners, an exotics brokerage based in San Antonio, breeds around 3,000 nonnative animals across three ranches in Texas, marketing just about everything, including Arabian oryx and Grevy’s zebras, to fellow breeders, conservation-minded investors and wealthy landowners who just want their own personal safari. But if there’s one creature he’d consider the poster child for exotics in Texas, it’s the axis deer, an animal native to India. “When people think about the exotic wildlife industry in Texas, the axis deer is what they think about,” Gilroy said. “It is the most prolific, the most sought-after and the most available animal that exists in Texas for breeding and for hunting.”

The axis deer certainly stands tall in both worlds. Prized by game hunters as well as animal buffs, the axis deer is what Gilroy calls “the gateway drug” to appreciating other exotic animals. And over the decades, that hardy and hard-to-hunt deer has only seen its population grow. The Exotic Wildlife Association in Kerrville estimates around 1 million axis call Texas home, most behind high fences to keep them within the confines of a ranch, but also including free-ranging. “It’s what we consider a common exotic,” said EWA executive director Charly Seale. “They’re very nomadic.” And while last month’s winter storm hit Texas axis hard (Seale said the hard freeze took out more than half of the state’s free-ranging deer) the hardy and highly reproductive species is expected to carry on.