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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.
After the first shot the rest are just noise.
Make mine a Minaska
Heaven has walls and rules, H-ll has open borders
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,138 Likes: 10 |
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. 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.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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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.
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Joined: Feb 2004
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Campfire Outfitter
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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.
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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.
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,138 Likes: 10 |
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.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: Aug 2010
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No; they do not herd together. Sherwood
FIRE UP THE GRILL - is NOT catch and release!
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yes a mule deer and a whitetail can or could breed together but not very often does this happen.
Last edited by pete53; 04/03/24.
LIFE NRA , we vote Red up here, Norseman
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Campfire Regular
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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. ![[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]](https://i.postimg.cc/wTX0pmbz/large.jpg) 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........
Last edited by wyoming260; 04/03/24.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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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
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Joined: Jul 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,138 Likes: 10 |
No; they do not herd together. Sherwood A firm comment from somebody who lives in Florida.... But apparently you've also lived in the West?
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.”
John Steinbeck
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Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 148
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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.
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Joined: Mar 2005
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
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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.
Casey
Not being married to any particular political party sure makes it a lot easier to look at the world more objectively...
Having said that, MAGA.
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Campfire Ranger
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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.
Casey
Not being married to any particular political party sure makes it a lot easier to look at the world more objectively...
Having said that, MAGA.
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