Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

See also: Aransas Pass, Texas

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Wetlands at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge looking out from the 40 ft observation tower.
Location	Aransas, Calhoun, Refugio counties, Texas, United States
Nearest city	Austwell, Texas
Area	114,657 acres (464.00 km2)
Established	1937
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
www.fws.gov/southwest/REFUGES/texas/aransas/

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is a 114,657 acre (464 km²) protected area situated on the southwest side of San Antonio Bay along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Texas. It is located in parts of Aransas, Refugio, and Calhoun counties. The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge was established by Executive Order 7784 on 31 December 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Aransas Migratory Waterfowl Refuge as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. The name was changed in 1939.

Bird life includes ducks, herons, egrets, ibises, roseate spoonbills, and the endangered whooping crane, whose population has recovered significantly since the 1940s.

Other fauna include American alligators, collared peccaries, snakes, and bobcats, which inhabit the refuge's grasslands, blackjack oak thickets, freshwater ponds, and marshes.

See also

• Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail
• Wildlife refuge

References

• McNulty, Faith, The Wildlife Stories of Faith McNulty, Chap.6 "The Whooping Crane" (pages 121-309), Doubleday 1980 (Chap. 6 was originally published as a book of the same title by E.P. Dutton in 1966). Much of her account deals with the work of Robert Porter Allen.

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

External links

• U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: official Aransas National Wildlife Refuge website
• Wildtexas.com: Review of Aransas NWR