A nilgai, an exotic antelope species whose name literally translates to “blue cow” in the Hindi language, arrived at the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in 1999. The nilgai is the largest species of Asian antelope and is considered sacred in its home range of northern India and eastern Pakistan. The male nilgai’s coat is a bluish gray color, which accounts for the common nickname “blue bull.”
The ranch’s nilgai, named Blue Boy, did not come from the distant shores of Asia, but rather from a canned hunting ranch in Texas. As a possible hunter’s trophy showpiece, Blue Boy did not cut muster with the owners of the game farm. While he was indeed a beautiful male with the characteristic blue/gray color, he had a broken horn. That injury was ultimately Blue Boy’s saving grace, as it disqualified him from being shot, killed, stuffed, and mounted above a fireplace.
At the ranch, Blue Boy joined Princess, a female nilgai, already in residence. Princess came to the ranch in 1997 from the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio. Though Blue Boy did not show any interest in her initially, he was nevertheless neutered, as reproduction is not allowed on the ranch. The process of castration removed all the male hormones that produce the typical bluish gray color, and his coat slowly turned the brown color of the female nilgai.
Princess has since passed away, so today Blue Boy shares his enclosure with camels, elands, addax, and a Grevy’s zebra named Boogey. Blue Boy and Boogey stay close to each other and are the most timid animals in their group, rarely allowing human caretakers to approach. Though Blue Boy has nothing to fear at the ranch, his past experience as a potential hunter’s target seems to haunt him. And the irony of his plight is visibly evident…his horn has grown back!
More About Texas Canned Hunts
According to Exotics on the Range (Mungall, Sheffield) the nilgai was introduced as a game species in the 1920s at the King Ranch in southern Texas. The animals were originally obtained either from zoos or from an auction by a circus that went bankrupt in Corpus Christi. Either way, the nilgai was one of the first of many foreign hooved species released in southern Texas for the purpose of trophy hunting.
The Lone Star state is home to about half of the nation’s canned hunts, where wealthy trophy hunters can simply pay a large fee to kill the exotic animal of their choice. The animals who are hunted are often tame and trapped within a fenced enclosure, making them easy targets for drive-thru killing. This is a practice with no chance or fair chase involved...one of the most inhumane and unsporting “hunts” imaginable.
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