How did he get this far east?
A rare mule deer sighting near Alexandria

Whitetail deer are prevalent around the Alexandria area, but Kevin Kotts of the Department of Natural Resources in Glenwood can think of only a couple of cases where a mule deer has been seen in the area. Now he can add another one to the list.

Alexandria's Jeff Klug sent a photo to the Echo Press Newspaper on Nov. 15 of a spike buck muley.

"We saw this photo last week, and it sure looks like a mule deer," Kotts wrote in an email to the Echo Press. "I guess a hybrid is always possible, but this deer has a mule deer tail and mule deer ears. Mule deer seem to have more of a gray color than the brown of whitetails."

The photo sent by Klug was taken at Country Blossom Farm just west of Alexandria. Klug lives in that area and says he saw the deer a couple times, always by itself.

Many others in the area had witnessed the deer too over the course of about a month as it became the talk of the area. Unfortunately for those who enjoyed spotting the deer, Klug recently sent another photo showing that the deer had died after getting hit by a car on Highway 27 near the public access on Lake Mary. This photo shows the deer up close with the gray coat and whiter face of a mule deer.

"It had been seen by I don't know how many people out here," Klug said. "I've never heard of them being here. I've heard of moose and seen moose tracks on my property a few years ago, but I've never seen a mule deer this far."

Mule deer are generally found in western North America. States like Montana and Wyoming are popular hunting destinations for the deer, while opportunities also exist in Minnesota's neighboring states of North and South Dakota.

Seeing mule deer in Minnesota is not unheard of, but it is certainly not a common occurrence in this portion of the state.

"In my work area, mule deer are very rare," Kotts said. "In the 1990s, I saw a small mule deer buck that was shot near Hancock. I've also heard of mule deer being taken in Traverse County near the South Dakota border, so seeing a mule deer in West Central Minnesota doesn't happen very often."

Kotts figures the deer probably moved here on its own in the wild and not from a game farm. The fact that it is a young buck also fits the mold of other big game species that sometimes wander outside of their normal home range.

"There doesn't appear to be any ear tags or other external markings on the deer," Kotts said. "We have occasional wild elk and moose pass through our work area, and these are almost always younger males."

I've been hunting mulies for well over 50 years and I've only seen a handful of spikes in my life. Normally a yearling will have a small 2x2 rack

That's true but there is nothing about that deer that resembles a hybrid.
I'm searching for more photos.
Alexandria is pretty deep into central Minnesota, not where one would even imagine a hybrid. Something tells me he didn't get there on his own.

A Mule deer with a respectable rack was shot in western Wisconsin last year.

There are few around here on the western side of the state. I've personally seen one doe and a buck was shot by Ulen a few years ago.

In South Western Washington I saw a muledeer with spikes at least ten inches long. I watched it for several minutes.

It's not all that far from the hills near Watertown-Roshholt SD, and while Mule Deer aren't common there, there are a few. Plenty of rolling hilly country around Glenwood to hold Mule Deer.

I saw a mule deer buck, probably in the mid-20"'s wide, size-wise at least, on the Iowa-SD border and that was in the late 80's.

If you look carefully at the picture, you will see that he is at least a very small 2x2 and he may even have 3 points on the right antler.

i'd bet that herd started from the bunch that escaped from Kenny's game farm back in the late nineties. A storm knocked down the fence on one of his pastures near Summit, and about a dozen got away.

Couple of years ago we had an antelope in gatzke mn.

I wish we had mule deer

Keep us posted if any Elephant show up!

In the room, standing right behind ya. Sorta pink lookin'

I think you're right. I hadn't seen the photo before. It does look like a small forky rather than a spike. He just looks like a typical yearling.

Definitely a mule deer. It looks like the buck has small forks but I've seen a number of spikes over the years. It would be nice to see mule deer expand their populations a bit so I look on any possible range expansion as positive.

The home of the famous Viking sword!

I hunt northwest Traverse County and shot my deer about 30 yards from the South Dakota border. I've thought I've seen mule deer but upon closer inspection they turned out to be whitetails. I don't doubt that there are 1 or 2 out there but most of the sightings are from someone's imagination. The deer run big out there

I don't think Alexandria is too much of a stretch to find a lone mule deer.




Dave

They show up in the sandhills of Southeastern North Dakota from time to time and I saw a doe this year about an hour Northwest of Fargo. Alexandria doesn't surprise me all that much, animals wander.

Alaska gets a wandering mule deer from Yukon Territory at times.......several hundred miles.

A mule deer buck got hit by a car near Prior Lake several years ago. The sheriff's deputy had to finish it off. It happened near Murphy Hanrehan Park.

Seeing a mule deer is the last critter on my Minnesota Critter bucket list.

Couple weeks ago I saw two elephants standing in a big field, maybe a mile from my homplace.
Big suckers, definitely not pink.

There is some in north and west Texas. They aren’t real big.

Obviously a misidentified house cat. (Prompted by the usual 'fire comments regarding mountain lion sightings in Iowa.)

I have seen a mule deer a handful of times in southeastern Nebraska over the last 30 years.

🙄 John, a DNR official told a lady we know, a frequent camper in the state grounds near the Little Sioux river also near the Peterson, IA area, not to let her grandkids run the trails alone. Seems they have trail cam evidence of two, maybe three lions, running the area.

My, how the DNR can change their tune when facing irrefutable evidence.

Back to the thread.

Would that be legal? The regulations say whitetail deer.

On a side note, a friend and I were talking about this and he brought up that he remembers there was a section in the regs about identifying hybrid and mule deer years ago. I think he is right but I don't remember it exactly.

Critters wander sometimes. Northern Missouri has had several moose over the years that probably came from Minnesota. In the last 10 - 12 years three confirmed wolves have been killed in Missouri. DNA traced them back to the upper Midwest wolf packs, Wisconsin I think. Missouri deer regulations state whitetail or mule deer. I don't know when or if any mulies have been killed in Missouri but apparently the conservation department wants to cover the scenario just in case.

George - I tried to send this as a PM, but it kept saying "user not found". A few years ago, my hunting partner and I headed out to wait for deer (who declined our invitation). He went north and I went east (sort of like "Ringo" by Lorne Greene). When we met up after dark, he said that I wouldn't believe the tracks that he saw in the snow. I replied that I probably would, since I bet that I had seen the same tracks (large cat). A few days later, someone shot a female lion out of a tree to our SE.

We used to fish below the dam at Peterson.

My first PeeWee baseball coach (and the husband of my first-grade teacher) drowned in the Little Sioux at Peterson one spring.

Best, John

I searched the PDF version of the regulations and "whitetail" isn't mentioned, just "deer". My guess is that shooting a mule deer would be legal, but still a guess.

You're right, it says "deer" so I guess it would be legal.
Remember when they wanted to outlaw shooting "white" deer. Albinos are just to cute to shoot...

A fellow I worked with who lived maybe 10 miles NW of Tyler Texas shot a Mule deer buck. The Texas dept. of parks and wildlife magnanimously didn't charge him with shooting a Mule deer when there is no mule deer season in Smith County. I think it was because a person could reasonably expect not to see one there
The closest Mule deer to smith county are probably in the Childress are, that's about 350 miles away. It was speculated somebody brought a fawn they found home and that's had it got there.

Ha! I just saw this now. How in the heck do you know that???

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was legal. I don't recall the hunter getting in any trouble.

When I was in high school back in the '60s it seemed they killed one every year--one at Franklin,MN on the river.
The Viking sword was found in Beardmore, ON the Runestone in Alex

I've been looking at photos of whitetail-Muley hybrids. Every photo I've seen shows a tail like the 1st pic, totally different than the muley in the 2d pic. The OP's photo is much more mulish. Besides, to get a hybrid, you still have to have both species in the neighborhood.
I haven't seen a hybrid that I know of. They say that they can't really escape. Whitetails and muleys use different methods of escape and the hybrids can't do either. A whtetail will run while a muley will bounce away. A hybrid apparently will just jump around without getting anywhere. Here's a good video of a muley bouncing. That's not saying they can't run, though. They can run like crazy when they're in the mood.