desert animals (hunting/livestock)

In an area that is rapidly becoming a desert I have a resistance to killing just about any living things. Whether it be trees, or native animal life. But hunting, or raising animals is of interest to me. So my question is what animals/livestock really thrive in the desert? Maybe native life that I could hunt. But even more important to me would be animals that I could raise that would actually enjoy being in an area like this.

Hello Daniel,

It really depends on your location, so some info on your location would be helpful, but I currently live in the Sonoran Desert, so I do have a bit of advice. As for wildlife we have quail, dove, rabbits (cottontail and jackrabbit), javelina, and deer to name the major ones. When hunting for big game though it helps to have mountains in the area for glassing, otherwise it can be a big challenge out here. Also, most of the animals will go through the arroyos, so those are usually good areas to check for big game. Small game can be a little easier though because they only really come out at dusk and dawn and any groves, arroyos with a decent amount of trees, or some other cover attract them very well.

Also, as for animals go I currently raise chickens and goats and have had success with coturnix quail. Those are mainly what everyone else keeps around here too, although a few people raise sheep, pigs, and ducks as well and they do just fine as long as the ducks have a constant supply of clean water. Other animals to raise are guinea fowl, cattle if you have the land (longer horned cattle tolerate heat better), and turkeys (with just a bit more care) can all be raised just fine as long as they have sufficient food, water, and shade. Though, unless you have some real dense shade from a tree I wouldn't recommend to keep rabbits because they're a lot more sensitive to the heat than anything else I've raised, but they can survive with adequate shade and care. One thing to keep in mind is that varieties of poultry that are a bit smaller tend to generate less body heat and do better and for sheep the breeds that shed their wool in the summer do a lot better and they generally have less problems than sheep breeds that keep their wool coat year round. That's just about all I can think of right now, so I hope this helps and again it depends a lot on your location.

I have a question about harvesting in locations that do not withstand a lot of animals...
The 1st reaction is to leave life ...living.

But then I think about natures ways. There is a maximum a land can stand for any species
(even if we humans seem to have managed to go over it unlike any other species?)
Any species has a capacity of reproduction that goes beyond maintaining its number, to recover after any catastrophe.

So, I imagine and would like to share about this, as I might not be right, that if we take some animals,
- then the species will go under the max number,
- then the number will grow more than without harvesting, because more children will survive.

So it might be that hunting in a sustainable way is the right balance between 1) lowering the number of animals on a land to the point that it will naturally increase again its population, and 2) without harvesting to the point of putting in danger the renewal capacity.

Well the land I am talking about is in central Texas. Just a bit west. There is already cattle on the land. I plan to use intensive grazing management as one of the tools to revitalize the area when I move onto the land.