- ANNOUNCER: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Television Series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding provided by the Toyota Tundra.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Adventure: it's what we share.

- NARRATOR: Coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife... - We're on a youth waterfowl hunt.

You can pretty much tell it's going to be a good morning when you're kicking up ducks walking out.

- Being out here in the water definitely calms me down.

It's just relaxing.

- A total solar eclipse happens every 18 months or so on average and it's great.

[theme music] ♪ ♪ - NARRATOR: Texas Parks and Wildlife, a television series for all outdoors.

[cranes squawk] [cranes squawk] [gentle music] - JENNIFER WARNER: So, we're leaving Port Aransas.

♪ ♪ We're headed to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge.

That's where primarily most of the Whooping cranes are wintering.

♪ ♪ It's the best way of seeing the cranes, 'cause they do wanna eat those blue crabs, which means they're getting towards the water, the salt water.

So you can see the juvenile is the one in the middle.

Yeah, it's nice that you can see all three of 'em in one frame there.

She has a nice family group.

Although you can see them from land, you're typically seeing them better when you're on a boat.

- That's great that there's so many of 'em out here this time.

Yeah, this is the third boat tour that I've done this time.

Did two yesterday just around the Aransas Bay.

This is great.

This is a five-hour trip, lots more birds out here.

[cranes squawk] - We're really lucky, because almost every single migratory bird that will come through will come through here.

You're gonna see more variety of species here than almost anywhere else in the country.

It's a really neat place to be if you're a bird watcher.

[gentle music] - MIKAEL: Oh, there's some on this side.

They're really close.

- So this is gonna be a mated pair.

Yeah.

This is gonna be our best view of the day.

So make sure you get your picture.

To, you know, actually see them in the wild, having those experiences, remembering that, and you know, they go back, and people ask, "You know, how was your vacation?"

And they're like, "I saw a Whooping crane."

And they're so excited about that.

And this is a whole experience that they'll hold with them forever, and they get excited.

They tell other people, and then those people come out too.

[cranes squawk] [upbeat guitar music] - MIKAEL: We're in the community of Lamar, Texas, [cranes squawking] which is right by Goose Island State Park.

- JENNIFER: Oh, there's a whooper.

- MIKAEL: This is one of the easiest places to see the most Whooping cranes.

Over there.

Oh, if you wanna get a picture.

- SPECTATOR: Wow.

- Everybody's excited to come here and see the birds so close.

This is free, and you don't have to organize a boat tour.

You can just drive here, and pull up on the side of the road, and come and see the cranes.

- That guy right there in the middle is a baby.

It's supposed to be a vacation.

Right?

But you get up at 7:30 [laughs] or earlier to be out here.

But it's a hundred percent worth it, because you get to be so close to everything.

He's poking around like they're right in your face.

Awesome.

And it's them not in a zoo, not in any kind of enclosure.

Just out chilling, having a good time.

[Erin laughs] - MIKAEL: A unique thing about this place is that the Whooping cranes have kind of gotten used to all the people lined up on the roadside watching them.

♪ ♪ The people never go beyond the fence, and the birds have learned that.

They come in pretty close, and give us great views.

[cranes squawking] Here's another one in flight.

When they're flying, you can see much more of them, the whole shape.

And they come into land, they spread their wings.

- Oh, I think they're just beautiful birds.

Oh yeah.

They're just feeding here.

This is where they come to feed.

They're raised in northern Alberta, I understand.

And they're wintering here just to feed, and enjoy the better weather than Northern Alberta, Canada.

This is just fantastic, being a couple hundred yards away.

I mean, crazy.

♪ ♪ - ERIN: They're so big.

- TED: Yeah.

- ERIN: Compared to the Sandhill cranes, they're just huge.

- To the right and more behind them, now there are the smaller gray Sandhill cranes.

I don't know many places where you can see Whooping cranes and Sandhill cranes side by side together in the same place.

[birds chittering] [majestic music] [birds squawking] Pretty amazing, huh?

Being able to see the whoopers here, just a huge treat.

Huge treat, right in Texas.

It's just fantastic.

It feels great to be able to share this with other people, show them something they might not otherwise know about, and also just show them the possibilities of what they can pursue on their own afterwards.

and maybe form a strong nature connection personally for themselves.

- JENNIFER: If there are species that need protection, we have to educate people, and we have to do it by getting them excited about the animals.

[birds squawking] This is a whole experience that they'll hold with them forever.

And that's what makes me excited about, you know, taking people out.

[birds squawking] [chirping] [wind] - J.D.

MILLER: It's a very, very beautiful park.

Very small, quaint.

Unknown to a point.

We most definitely are a hidden gem.

Not many people know about this park because they hear about the bigger parks.

Once they find out about this park, we see them coming back again and again.

[bird call] [gentle music] - TOMMY NEYLAND: There's woods, there's open space.

Every bit of it just real picturesque and something that you won't forget.

[upbeat music] [calm music] - I'm J.D.

Miller, I'm the superintendent of Fort Boggy State Park.

We consider ourselves East Texas.

We're about 45 minutes north of Huntsville, about two hours north of Houston.

[woodpecker pecking] Tree-lined terrain.

We have the oak trees, we have the bois d'arcs, we have hickory, uh, just about every imaginable tree, really.

I consider it more of a true forest area.

A hilly country as well.

[birds calling] Back in the 1800s, there was an actual fort here named Fort Boggy after Boggy Creek.

Our little 12-acre lake is pretty much what everybody comes out to enjoy.

It is spring fed, so it's actually cooler than the actual creek itself.

It is a no-wake lake.

They can get out and swim and fish.

[fly casting whooshes] We do have a one-mile hiking and biking trail that goes around our lake.

We do have the two-mile hiking trail and biking trail that encompass our primitive campsites.

They are spaced out.

No electricity, no running water, it's true roughing it.

It's a hike in and enjoy actual nature.

We do have an actual pavilion for the rental.

It will hold up to 40 to 50 guests at one time.

Pretty much used every weekend.

Our cabins seem to be our main attraction.

It is glamping.

The cabins are very, very beautiful.

You have your queen-sized bed, bunk bed with an actual trundle.

It is heated and air-conditioned.

A little bit more home comforts.

[gentle music] [fire crackles] - We could not do a short trip if we had to bring it all.

It's just not worth it.

- We like the amenities that the cabin brings as far as a nice cushy bed.

- If you're not into bugs and things as much, you can escape that.

[laughs] Having a bed and not having to worry about the shelter aspect is good, and it's good for any kind of weather.

- At the same time, you know, a little bit of rustic with the environment and the fire that we can still have, so it's just right.

- JENNIFER: Just a little escape.

[upbeat music] - We hear it all the time, "We never knew y'all were here," "We never heard of Fort Boggy," "Man, y'all have a beautiful park."

If you don't want the big park experience, most definitely come to Fort Boggy, the small park experience that you will never forget.

[gentle music] - DONI SCHWALM: Alright, buddy.

[banging] - NARRATOR: These researchers are transferring a wild animal from box trap to bag.

[blowing] - DONI: Keep going.

- NARRATOR: They can't really see it, but this critter is always hard to see, especially in Texas.

- DONI: Down here in the southern part of their range, densities appear to be pretty low.

What I'm trying to do is get his head in the corner so that it's easier to grab without getting bitten.

There we go.

- NARRATOR: This is one of the smallest species of the wild dog family in North America, a swift fox.

And these researchers are happy to find it in good health on this lonesome prairie in the far north Panhandle.

- DONI: First things first, hair dye.

[camera click] Those teeth look smooth.

- NARRATOR: This team is studying the status of this elusive little fox to help keep it on the grasslands of the Great Plains.

- DONI: We are Operation Fox Finder.

Okay, guys, your maps are ready.

My name is Doni Schwalm.

So here's camp.

My job description is research associate... Go a little further and the road bends.

...at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.

But try and stay south of the road.

We're looking for swift foxes.

There you go.

- COLTYN KIDD: Cool.

Appreciate it.

- We're working with Texas Parks and Wildlife to survey for swift foxes in a nine county area in the Texas Panhandle that falls within the historic distribution of this species.

This species, from what we can tell from historic records was almost gone.

We know for sure there has been a big decline historically.

About 50% of their historic distribution now no longer has swift foxes, and where they do still exist, the population is kind of patchy, so it's not very continuous.

We think that the first and foremost thing that led to these major population declines were historic predator control programs where they were poisoning, kind of indiscriminately for wolves mostly and really just anything, and unfortunately those baits, they're not specific.

And we ended up with a lot fewer foxes that way.

Of course they like grassland habitat.

The more agricultural development there is, especially just like irrigated farmland, the fewer swift foxes there will be.

And then finally, primarily because there are no more wolves, there are way more coyotes than there used to be, and coyotes are their highest source of mortality, up to 77% of their mortality, so it's a pretty big deal.

[dramatic music] Habitat in the Texas Panhandle tends to be centered in the National Grassland system, right along the Oklahoma and New Mexico borders, and then quite a bit of private land too.

There's a lot of cattle ranches that have good habitat.

They want that short vegetation.

I work with a lot of private landowners, and they always want to know if this is going to affect their operation.

And the first thing I tell them is that this is not an endangered species.

But the second thing is that, if they're grazing their pastures, they're doing swift foxes a favor.

So the only thing we would ask is please don't shoot them.

What I find is that most private landowners, if they know they have swift foxes, they really like them.

They're kind of cute and charismatic.

I'd keep it on this side.

- ELISSA MATTHEWS: Alright.

- DONI: We're doing two different things while we're here.

Our primary task is to set cameras.

But we're also doing some live trapping, because we want to collect a genetic sample to look at the genetic viability of this population.

- COLTYN: Alright, ready for the pole?

I'm doing a grid study with wildlife cameras.

- SILKEN GOREE: Stop.

- Sixteen.

What that means is we have multiple wildlife cameras per area rather than just one.

That increases the chances of seeing our focal species, the swift fox.

- ELISSA MATTHEWS: Eight.

- DONI: Got it.

We use a paste bait.

It's very very skunky.

Nasty!

[laughs] - ELISSA: Pungent.

- DONI: The way we've got it set up, we've got a scent post three meters out from the camera, and a bunch of other smelly stuff near that scent post.

And they'll smell the post, sometimes they'll mark the post, they'll roll in the lure, and kind of hang out in front of the camera for a while and then toddle off.

Mostly we get coyotes, and badgers and skunks and porcupines and pronghorn and all kinds of birds and all kinds of raptors and crows and vultures and everything but a fox.

[laughs] We must be close to 200 cameras out and zero fox, but we were surveying where they haven't been seen since the 80s, so I can't say we're surprised.

I'm going to be really disappointed if we're setting cameras all in this area where they should be and we don't get them.

So the daily schedule is pretty much all day.

As soon as we're done checking our trap line-- Not today!

--then we're setting cameras all day long, until three or four in the afternoon and then we start resetting our traps.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's not really an exact science.

'How dry is the brisket chunk?'

[laughs] [playful music] Maybe if we can get ourselves a roadkill deer, the rest of the brisket will go in our bellies.

Oh gosh.

The glories of wildlife biology!

Only put the rabbit in a spot that you think is just amazing.

[playful music] Got it?

Let's get some foxes in boxes!

[doors closing] We're going to go back to that really short stuff.

So this is a really exciting place to set traps.

The vegetation is almost like a golf course.

They like it six inches or less and this is probably some of the best stuff that we've found so far, since it's a wet year.

Everything is so tall.

Maybe here.

- ELISSA: Okay.

- DONI: You've got all the GPS and stuff?

- ELISSA: Yep.

- DONI: Okay, we're done.

I think we have a good chance at a fox.

Still no fox sign though, which is a bummer.

Lots of coyote tracks and some coyote scats, so we'll see, but put our last two right around here.

There's a little prairie dog town over there and some trails, so, fingers crossed.

I'm excited, we've got enough sunlight left to get home in time to cook something instead of just eat cold soup.

[laughs] - COLTYN: Even though the swift fox is not federally endangered, it's still a species of concern that we want to help.

Their habitat is going away, and they don't have anywhere to live, and so I'm hoping that as we talk with public and help them understand what is happening, they can help with our efforts.

- DONI: 29 degrees this morning.

You've got to take your time or you're going to leave your oil pan somewhere in middle of a pasture.

[grasses scraping bottom of truck] Nobody came to say hello.

[groans] So this one's empty.

Shoot!

There's another one down there.

You know, they talk about this like a flyover land, and I always am like, that's because you haven't spent any time in it.

You don't listen to the meadowlark chorus in the morning.

So, I think they're missing out.

[meadowlark sings] Grasslands are so under-appreciated, because there are a lot of unique species here that occur here and nowhere else.

We've lost a lot of it, but there's a lot of opportunity left to like conserve these unusual species that only occur here.

Ooh, it does look closed.

It's closed.

Okay, the moment of truth.

Please don't be a skunk.

This one has me nervous.

[doors close] It's a fox.

It's a fox!

And he tore part of the plastic off the trap so I can see him.

Alright, we got one.

Let's text the crew.

- COLTYN: To be able to see one in hand is really rewarding.

[banging] You're really surprised at how small they are.

- DONI: 2.3 kilograms.

Female?

It's like the fox's version of alien abduction-- probed and prodded and measured.

- ELISSA: Two inches.

- DONI: If you keep the eyes covered, they stay kind of calm, and there's no evidence it affects them in the long term.

[upbeat music] I want to help fix things.

I want to work the landscape, I want to work with the landowners to see if we can put some things to rights where we can, and swift foxes provide that opportunity, to like put something back on the landscape and restore this species, and they're a neat little animal.

Alright.

They're tough little guys and I can appreciate that.

[wind] That's the best part, you turn them loose and they always put on a nice little show.

Away I go, back to life.

[inspirational music] That a girl!

Trot off and they stop and they look at you, and have a little bathroom break on go on their way.

Alright.

Good luck, honey.

[wind] [birds chirping] - NARRATOR: In 1923, Texans established a state park system to protect wild places and provide outdoor spaces.

[machine whirring] One hundred years later, Texas State Parks created a work of art to mark the milestone.

[machine whirring] - The time capsule is something that we're building to commemorate the first centennial of our Texas State Parks.

[machine whirring] This wood comes from Mother Neff State Park.

It comes from a pecan tree.

It was distressed and needed to be cut down.

[wood clattering] [wood scraping] - We harvested the trunk out of that, so we got three lengths out of the trunk, and this is what we milled it out of.

[machine whirring] - Why not try to salvage it and create something beautiful out of it that will last for a lifetime?

[gentle music] [tool whirring] [fire roaring] [fire roaring] - NARRATOR: Besides building the box, the team is also making metal name plates for every single park in the system.

[gentle music] [fire roaring] [hammer thudding] - I think they look really good.

[hammer thudding] [tool whirring] - STEPHEN: Each park, they are putting in an object of significance that helps them tell a story.

And the audience of that story are the park staff and the stewards of the future who are gonna be opening this in 2074.

- Right now, we have got the great honor at Mother Neff State Park to be able to showcase the Texas State Park's Centennial Time Capsule.

- NARRATOR: Unlike most time capsules, this one will not be buried and forgotten until a later date.

Instead, visitors can see it on display as it travels from park to park over the next 50 years.

- Mother Neff gets this lovely honor of saying we were the first state park to host it.

We got to leave messages for the future.

I hope they see a glimpse of the past, but I hope that they also realize how much passion there is for the land we get to steward and these wild places that we still have.

[birds chirping] [rushing water] [rushing water] [rushing water] [rushing water] [water riffles] [water riffles] [water riffles] [water riffles] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] [wind blowing] This series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation -- conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas, thanks to members across the state.

Additional funding provided by the Toyota Tundra.

Your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas.

Adventure: it's what we share.