{"id":94898,"date":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/94898\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:08:08","slug":"which-wildlife-survived-the-hill-country-floods-and-which-species-conservationists-are-worried-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/94898\/","title":{"rendered":"Which wildlife survived the Hill Country floods and which species conservationists are worried about"},"content":{"rendered":"

KERR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 In the direct aftermath of the devastating Hill Country floods<\/a> on July 4, something became noticeable: the silence.<\/p>\n

Animals and insects were swept away, relocated or worst of all \u2014 eliminated. <\/p>\n

Conservationist Azalia Rodriguez with the organization Defenders of Wildlife<\/a> took KSAT\u2019s Courtney Friedman on a walk along the Guadalupe River in Center Point, where they were able to survey the land and spot signs of healing nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cNature is already starting to take back its place,\u201d Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n

Rodriguez represents the 18 counties that make up the Hill Country<\/a>, an area that greatly contributes to Texas having the second-highest biodiversity in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll see some deer, you\u2019ll see owls, opossums, you can even see armadillos out here,\u201d she said, just to name a few. \u201cThere are lots of bird species, a lot of endangered species like the golden cheek warbler. For aquatic this is home to the Guadalupe darter, sunfish, bluegill, carp species, bass species.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Rodriguez saw the devastation after the flood, she was devastated. However, now she is back on the land she loves, seeing many species come back to their homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I parked the car today there was a red-shouldered hawk that flew into the tree,\u201d Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n

Wildlife slowly resurfacing<\/p>\n

In the first minute of the walk, Rodriguez picked up a huge feather off the ground, saying, \u201cThis is a big deal. It\u2019s probably either like a black vulture, maybe something that\u2019s more of a raptor bird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along the walk to the river, Rodriguez stopped to point out tiny frogs hopping, broken shells in the sand and even deer droppings. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely look like they\u2019re fresh, and so again it just kind of shows the natural process that nature is starting to return in wildlife for coming back,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cThey normally aren\u2019t even this close to the river, but look at all this fresh vegetation, and this is what keeps them fed and hydrated.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rodriguez said other mammals have also been found in areas where they usually don\u2019t go. <\/p>\n

\u201cFoxes and opossums and things like that. They\u2019re trying to escape and then you end up having these misplaced species in other areas where you just really wouldn\u2019t think for them to be,\u201d she said. \u201cBut again, it just shows how resilient they are, because they will find a way to kind of maximize where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally reaching the river, fish darted near the surface. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing fish species, and with fish bring birds, insects, and they will bring other wildlife,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

In the river\u2019s eddies, the parts that curve out into the land, is where Rodriguez focuses on a very important endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Guadalupe fat mucket. It\u2019s a muscle species,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those symbiotic relationships. It also interacts with fish and creates other kinds of food sources for other kinds of wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

These small mussels impact humans in a big way. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne adult mussel can filter 8 to 15 gallons of water in just a single day, and so we need that. We need that clear water quality, that good filtration system,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cIn our region, the majority of our drinking water is groundwater, so it\u2019s important that we invest in those ecological services.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if she thinks there are any mussels left in the river, she said, \u201cRight now it\u2019s hard to say. There haven\u2019t been any surveys done just because search and rescue right now is the priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

All they can do is wait and plan for the worst. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s like state agencies that are doing propagation efforts,\u201d she said. \u201cWe all work in coalitions together, and so one of the ways we do that is through the Hill Country Conservation Network, where it\u2019s a network that\u2019s built of nonprofits, state and federal agencies, universities and community members and landowners.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, species cannot be reintroduced until the habitat itself is healthy. With all the toxins wiped into the river during the flood, that is not yet the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take a while. Right now, groundwater authorities are testing the water quality every single day,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s not very clear and it\u2019s not very pristine and it\u2019s going be a little bit until we\u2019re able to introduce any species into this section of the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Nature will always find a way\u2019<\/p>\n

The efforts and energy coming from the locals give Rodriguez hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity members want the involvement, and they go after it so well. There already have been community meetings about how we can move forward through conservation practices,\u201d Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n

Center Point flood survivor Angela Simons lives right across the street from the river and is starting to see the area begin to look healthier.<\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally everything was gone, and now you\u2019re starting to see a little bit of life again. Fresh stuff sprouting,\u201d Simons said. <\/p>\n

She said it makes her feel \u201chope that it\u2019ll get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodriguez shares that hope. <\/p>\n

\u201cNature will always find a way to take itself back and heal itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KERR COUNTY, Texas \u2013 In the direct aftermath of the devastating Hill Country floods on July 4, something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1147,19232,192,64289,4872,4877,6632,79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-94898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-conservation","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-guadalupe-river","12":"tag-hill-country-floods","13":"tag-kerr-county","14":"tag-outdoors","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}