Texas holds 18 animal species. The official Texas reveal names fifteen of them in the announcement text and then publishes the complete set as the in-game animal logos, and the three logos the text does not spell out are the Black-tailed Prairie Dog, the Jackrabbit and the Bobcat. Texas covers roughly 100 km² split between the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes in the south-east, the Blackland Prairies in the centre and the arid Trans-Pecos region in the west up to the Pecos River.
Hunting Simulator 3 Texas animals: the full 18-species roster
- American Pronghorn
- Aoudad
- Black-tailed Prairie Dog
- Northern Pintail
- Collared Peccary
- Desert Bighorn Sheep
- Jackrabbit
- Desert Mule Deer
- Feral Pig
- Montezuma Quail
- Nilgai
- Bufflehead
- Pheasant
- Rio Grande Turkey
- Scimitar-Horned Oryx
- Bobcat
- Texas Plains Coyote
- Texas Whitetail Deer
The Jackrabbit here uses the same animal artwork as the one in Colorado, and the pheasant is the same bird listed on the Colorado roster as Common Pheasant.
Desert species and the arid west
Four animals belong to the dry country: the Aoudad, the Scimitar-Horned Oryx, the Desert Bighorn Sheep and the Desert Mule Deer. All four are Trans-Pecos animals, and all four are the Texas versions of shapes you may know from Colorado — the desert bighorn sheep and the desert mule deer are distinct roster entries from the Rocky Mountain bighorn and the Rocky Mountain mule deer.
The full release gave elk, whitetail, mule deer and pronghorn a completely new set of antlers, while the horns on the sheep, the aoudad and the oryx were deliberately left unchanged.
Plains game, pigs and coyotes
The Blackland Prairies in the centre of the map carry the plains species: the American Pronghorn, the Nilgai, the Feral Pig, the Black-tailed Prairie Dog and the Texas Plains Coyote. The two pig-like ungulates on the roster, the Feral Pig and the Collared Peccary, are the small ungulates you can put on a license, and the Black-tailed Prairie Dog is the one animal in the game that is a genuine pest rather than quarry — it is what makes the prairie interesting when nothing else is moving.
Texas has no elk, no bison, no mountain lion, no black bear, no red fox and no grey wolf. Those are all Colorado species, and if a contract asks for one of them, it is a Colorado contract.
Birds on the coast and in the short grass
Five birds sit in Texas: the Rio Grande Turkey, the Pheasant, the Montezuma Quail, the Northern Pintail and the Bufflehead. The Rio Grande Turkey is the heavy one and wants a shotgun at close range. The Montezuma Quail is the hardest bird in the game to put up — even harder than a pheasant, because it holds tighter and breaks when you are already close.
Where these animals sit on the Texas map
The wildlife follows the geography exactly. Desert species sit in the Trans-Pecos, plains species work the Blackland Prairies, and the water birds and the turkey belong to the coast and its water. The Texas map guide covers what each of the three regions looks like and which species you should expect in it.
When you have something on the ground, the age and DNA readouts decide what it is worth, and the trophy scoring guide covers how to read them and how to aim for a better individual next time.