I think they already are here in Bandera County along the river. A while back going to town I go along the river for maybe a half mile. I have learned the hard way that if you see an axis cross in front of you it is best if you stop and wait for the rest of them, An axis crossed the road and I stopped. I counted 75 of them cross. Right before town I cross the river. On the right there are a bunch of pecan trees. Normally there are what looks to be at least 50 under them.

great eating but sure tear up a whitetail habitat pretty quickly.

Really? I've read that they don't really eat the same things that whitetail do.

They don't eat the same things per se - but it's everything else they do, including just moving as a herd, that typically will make the WT's move more or find new areas. Certainly not anywhere near as bad as wild hogs in terms of invasive species/damage but Axis are coming up.

Also +1 on the meat. I could eat Axis all year and be completely happy. Aside from Nilgai it's my favorite wild game.

You should come spend some time in the hill country and south Texas. Some of the free range critters I’ve ran across in the last 6 years:

Axis
Fallow
Blackbuck
Waterbuck
Nilgai
Scimitar Oryx
Red Stag
Sika
Aoudad

We have both axis and whitetail coexist well in small numbers at the ranch (Kimble Co.); where I think the whitetail sometimes get intimidated is when the axis roll into the feeder in large numbers. Axis bucks are definitely pretty aggressive all year long, especially with other species. I've seen Aoudad rams or big boars come in and try to push all critters off the feeder, but the mature axis bucks don't back down and usually hold their ground.