Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Do mule deer and white tails form herds together?

Today was the second time I’ve seen a mixed group of mule and white tail deer run together on our place. It looked to me like the leaders are mule deer.

Has anyone here seen this behavior or am I crazy?

I know they cross breed and make hybrid deer so why wouldn’t they herd up together. Unfortunate though as I like the idea of mule deer staying mule deer and whitetail staying out of mule deer country.

I didn’t realize they can cross breed!

The muleys are so much bigger probably the males can mate with white tail does, but not so much the opposite.

Does anybody here have pics of a cross breed?

Dumdum, Where do you live?

Whitetails have pretty much colonized all of Alberta, even the mountains, where before settlement, it was by far mostly mule deer throughout the Province.

In the 80s before they changed deer management, it was relatively common to see herds of MD and WT near each other in the same field in the prairies of southern Alberta.

That is much more uncommon now that we have 30-40 years of doe management and mule deer buck draws.

MD and WT do interbreed, but it is relatively rare. Hybrids are usually infertile and not the brightest deer, as the habits of WT and MD are not totally compatible. The hybrid may exhibit behaviors of both species causing the hybrid to act indecisive, for instance, should they run or hide? That can result in the hybrid being easy prey for predators and hunters, so the lifespan may not be great.

WT are more aggressive, so it is usually the WT buck chasing and breeding the MD doe. Hybrids seem to have no definitive physical characteristics. Here in Alberta, as hunters, we are directed to use the tail as a species identifier. Don’t go by throat patches, coat colors, antler confirmation, ear size and shape, to ID species. Legally, the tail configuration directs what tag is used on the deer. If the tail is confusing, not helping the ID, don’t shoot.

I’ve seen photos and mounts of hybrids, they are not attractive critters. I wouldn’t shoot one. I’ve hunted deer in Southern Alberta since 1978 or 1979. I’ve never seen a confirmed hybrid.

I’ve spoken in generalities, as my understanding is that there is little conclusive about hybrid looks or behaviors.

Never seen a Hybrid myself, where I hunt Mullies on the SK/AB border, I see them in the same area all of the time, and the Mullies always outnumber the Whitetails by a large percentage.

In a lot of south central and south eastern Montana it’s the opposite. The only thing that checks the whitetails back from totally taking over is the frequency of blue tongue taking its toll.

Osky

We have a hybrids around. However studies have shown that they are not sterile. The off spring will look more like the type of buck that bred the doe.

Here in Colorado the game department wants to control the whitetails closely to keep the mule deer herd genetically pure as the Whitetail bucks will run off the muley bucks.That is why CPW has these whitetail only hunts

According to deer biologist Valerius Geist, mule deer/whitetail hybrids are not biologically sterile but they have behavioral issues that make them vulnerable to predation. They neither stot like a mule deer or escape by running with the head low like a whitetail. Thus, they don't have an effective predator escape behavior. As a a result they are more likely to be killed by predators and are less likely to survive over time.

They also have other behavioral differences that make them less likely to breed successfully with either whitetails or mule deer.

I've never seen mule deer and whitetails in the same group. It could be possible though I suppose.

I have seen mulies and whitetails together out on the prairies of CO and many, many years ago I shot a mulie/whitetail cross. It was a small meat buck and it was running with 2 whitetail does. It ran really weird and had a funny tail that was kind of shaped like a whitetail but only as long as a mulie tail and it had a dark grey patch on the forehead where a mulie has the black patch. I took it to the CO DOW in Brush CO and they took a tissue sample and it came back as a cross. I kind of wish I would have kept the antlers but the dog used them as a chew toy. I seriously doubt I will ever take another.

I have whitetails around my place from late April to Thanksgiving or shortly after. It seems the muledeer run them out; one day I'll see whitetails, the next mulies. Mid to late April, the mulies leave, a week to 10 days later I start seeing whitetails again. I have only once seen both species here at the same time in the 20 years I've lived here; it was mid December, and they were in separate groups. All the whitetails that day were bucks.

I've never seen anything around here that appeared to be a crossbreed, but did a few times in the Yaak valley over a period of 15 years. They were always with a group of whitetails.

The mule deer and white tail by me usually are separated even in the same field.

Several white tail I have harvested here have small or no eye guards, and the antlers fork similar to mule deer.

I’ve never seen them together. Maybe in the same grain field but a ways apart.

My area is known to hold both Whitetail and Mule deer and I have seen Mule deer hanging around whitetails often (even in the rut). I shot an interesting whitetail two seasons back that might have a little mix in him.

One side of the antler is forked. Larger than usual ears.

The sure physical sign of a hybrid is the size and placement of the metatarsal gland on the lower hind leg. On whitetails its small and white, on mule deer its several inches long and darker brown, and on hybrids pale and in between in size. This has been confirmed by several biologists, including Jim Heffelfinger, who's published several books on deer biology.

Once hunted a plains area of eastern Colorado with some other guys, and one killed a buck hybrid. Have a photo of it somewhere and will post it later. Larry Weishuhn, the noted deer biologist from Texas, was on the same hunt, and pointed out the difference in the metatarsal gland compared to the mule deer and whitetails that were taken.



I killed a hybrid doe here in Montana in the late 1990s.

Hybrid - Mule & Whitetail Deer
What is unique about the photo is that the one on the left is a hybrid, a cross between a mule deer and a white-tailed deer. It has the ears of the mule deer and the tail shape of a whitetail. Because of the differences in breeding behaviour (white-tailed does generally must be chased by rutting bucks, whereas mule deer does are much less elusive) mating is more likely to occur between mule deer does and white-tailed bucks. The offspring will generally herd and mate with the mule deer so after a few generations the white-tailed deer characteristics will be eliminated.
In the upper Columbia Valley, British Columbia - the mule deer are usually found on the bench lands while the white-tailed deer occupy the valley bottoms.

In the late-1980s, Dr. Valerius Geist, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Calgary, set out to discover why mule deer and whitetails seem incapable of coexisting. His eight-year study revealed that one-way hybridization is the likely culprit. According to Dr. Geist's findings, when whitetail bucks breed mule deer does, the offspring lack the survival instincts of either species and thus are unable to cope in the wild. "Mule deer and whitetail deer have completely different escape strategies," explains Dr. Geist. "A mule deer usually reacts to danger from a great distance, fleeing at the first sign of trouble. When threatened, a mule deer throws obstacles at its pursuer, running uphill or bounding over trees and brush. "A whitetail, on the other hand, usually remains calm, sitting out a threat until the last possible moment, then flushing like a rooster pheasant racing away on a fairly straight line, using speed rather than obstacles to put distance between itself and a predator." Hybrids produced by a whitetail buck and mule deer doe don't demonstrate
either of these escape strategies. In fact, hybrid fawns seem to inherit a fatal blend of survival techniques that turn them into "sitting ducks.

Hunting in NW ND a dozen or so years ago. We stalked a large whitetail buck as it was pushing a group of 4-5 does. He wound up down in a basin where a sizeable mulie buck had gathered a harem of 6-8 does. The whitetail ran right past the mulie which was larger in both physical and rack size and started scent checking the mulie does. The mulie just hung back and watched him work his harem. I don’t know what would’ve ultimately happened as the whitetail died of a sudden case of lead poisoning.

The whitetail bucks seem to be more aggressive and breed mulie does more than mule bucks breeding whitetail does.
I’ve suspected I’ve seen hybrids but don’t know for sure.

This is what the deer biologists say.

I see WT's and MD often within feet of each when feeding in ag fields. They even bed close to each other near field edges. One thing I have noticed is when they get spooked, they often separate even if they are right amongst each other when spooked. Each species seems to select a different escape path.

A couple years ago, I watched a decent-sized WT buck with an in-heat WT doe. Mule deer bucks and does were all around them feeding, bedded, sparring, etc... A couple small WT bucks were also hovering in the vicinity trying to get in on the hot doe action. The little WT bucks were way more persistent and aggressive when trying to get close to the doe.

Whenever a mule deer buck wandered to close to his doe, usually 20 yards or less, the WT buck would run them off. I'm pretty sure the MD bucks could smell something curious about the WT doe, but didn't have any fighting desire to take on the WT buck. Most of the MD bucks outweighed and out-antlered the whitetail buck by a fair margin, but that didn't stop him from giving them hell. He run them off a 100 yards or so and go back to his doe.

Thanks for all the information. It is amazing that certain traits are genetically defined and can interfere with each other in a crossbreed!

Back in the 1970s I was checking mink traps NE of Hawley MN and saw a doe mule deer crossing a harvested grain field. I was dumbfounded, I had seen lots of mule deer in CO, WY and MT, I had no idea they were that far east. No internet at that time, but the local warden said that occasionally one will wander into western MN.

I have Dr. Geist's book and have read it several times, along with Jim Heffelfinger's books. I also met both guys and talk to them considerably, during the years of to my early involvement in the Mule Deer Foundation. But nothing in nature is written in stone, especially deer behavior.

Have seen mule deer bucks run off whitetail bucks during the rut on Montana riverbottoms where both exist, very close to each other. In each instance the buck with the larger antlers ran the other off, whether it was a mule deer or whitetail.

Although I have no personal experience with it, I've read and heard rumors of hybrid whitetail/muley in western Kentucky as far back as 1984.

A forked back tine, does not a hybrid make.

I live about the Wind River and all along the river is farm land. Seeing herds of deer on those fields is common. The White Tails don't expose themselves as much as the mule deer do but in the early mornings it's common to see the 2 species of deer in what looks like the same herd. I think it's more likely that 2 herds are simply eating the same feed on the same field because even in the times we see them close together you'll not see them evenly mixed. So there may be 20 WTs and 40 Mule deer but the Whitetails groups up and the mule deer scatter out more. So them hearing together is not actually what they are intending to do. More like neighbors running to each other at the grocery store.

Exactly.

For several years we lived on a 7-acre country place along a creek, with the creek on the south edge of our property and the local highway on the north edge. Along the creek were big patches of brush and some trees, ideal whitetail habitat. Above the highway was "breaky" country, covered with sagebrush, and conifers in the draws, ideal mule deer habitat. Between the creekbottom brush and timber and the highway were the neighbor's hayfields.

When I'd get up in the morning, usually around dawn, would hike up to our mail-box on the highway to pickup the local newspaper. Often both mule deer and whitetails were feeding in the hayfields, and if close enough to me to be alarmed the whitetails ran into the creekbottom cover, and the mule deer bounced across the highway to the steep draws.

No; they do not herd together. Sherwood

yes a mule deer and a whitetail can or could breed together but not very often does this happen.

I saw a doe like this about 5 years ago antelope hunting about 20 miles east Of Buffalo, Wy. She had a mostly whitetail looking head and basic body . The tail was all mule deer. She had two fawns with her that look like her. When they moved off, the doe mule deer bounced away and the fawns ran like a whitetail. Funny thing is this was classic antelope country and I rarely see any deer there........

Dumdum: The fields adjacent to my home have BOTH Whitetailed Deer and Mule deer in them - many more Mule Deer than Whitetails.
95% of the time they stay separated by hundreds of yards - the other 5% of the time they do intermingle!
The exception to this is when Whitetailed Does are harvested and their orphaned fawns will STAY with the Mule Deer groups - I don't know why.
I have pictures of my front lawn with both Mule Deer and Whitetailed Does feeding within feet of each other - I have 11 Mule Deer Does in my front yard right now but NO Whitetails in sight.
Myself and one of my Hunting partners harvested a nifty hybrid (Whitetail/Mule Deer mix) along the Greybull River near Meeteetse, Wyoming - the taxidermist in Cody, Wyoming eagerly sought the cape of our Hybrid Deer for his use and paid us appropriately!
I will say this one of the "Mule Deer" Does that frequents my lawns has VERY small Whitetail like ears - I will pay attention to her tail next time she comes by.
Love watching them all.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

A firm comment from somebody who lives in Florida....

But apparently you've also lived in the West?

I hesitate to post because I can’t find the pictures but fall of 2019 I took a buck that was a mule deer - whitetail hybrid. Head, antlers, ears, and color were of mule deer. Belly hair, rear legs, and tail were of whitetail and favored the whitetail colors. He was with 6-8 whitetail does. This buck was taken in one of the 600 units in eastern Montana where I typically hunt mule deer.
I’ve put a lot of deer in the freezer but this was a first and only for me.

Muleys are probably the youngest of all the large mammal species in North America, most likely evolving into a species in the last 10,000 years. As Geist pointed out Muleys are mostly whitetail genetics with a big dose of blacktail genetics thrown in.

About 10,000 years ago the glacier in the central part of North America temporarily expanded rapidly south, and partly isolated the precursor to muleys from white tails, and is believed to have allowed muleys to “solidify” themselves into a separate species.

Like most more recently evolved species muleys are more of a specialist, whereas whitetails are more of a generalist. In most cases generalists do better in the face of human altered habitat. Because of this, whitetails have expand westward, probably increasing the frequency of hybrids over the past century.

It doesn’t happen very often but because muleys are mostly whitetail sometimes those whitetail genes will randomly express themselves with whitetail chacteristics in a muley.

Although most of the time when both characteristics appear in a deer it is a hybrid.