Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire muley / whitetail cross

Looks like a muley tail. What leads one to surmise it's a cross?

Color variations do occur. The pic below is a yearling muley for sure and a product of a twin birthing. Nearest blacktails are about 150 miles away. Not the typical mule deer tail though.


Same buck the year before as a fawn with his sister, who was melanistic.


Their mom was a typically patterned muley and is to the far left below.


Can't make any claims as to who their father/s might have been although Cookie caught up with this guy about 25 miles away.


This fellow from a prior year was also a little strange. Had a black stripe from nose all the way down his back to the tip of his tail, but was muley all the way.


Cookie found him across 4 seasons but his existence is now uncertain.

Despite antler configuration, the below is also a solid mule deer trailing a doe through our back yard.


Takes a serious examination to definitively determine heritage. We do have some whitetails in northeast and western Oregon and a few along the Columbia River.

Once listened to a Geist presentation on deer evolution. As to gait when fleeing from danger, tongue in cheek he said mulie/whitetail crosses were totaly confused and just stood around.

We see both species fenced in on Montana's Bison Range, but haven't noted any obvious cross overs.