mule deer and whitetail cross breeding

[elkwhisperer]

I spend some time in an area that holds both muleys and whitetails and I have seen them very close to each other. So I was wondering how much if any cross breeding happens? I mean if a buck sees a different species of doe does it think no it's not like me, or does it think look at that hot doe?

 

[gb22]

How much/often, I can't say. It DOES happen. Dr. Valerius Geist (the world's foremost scientific authority out of the University of Alberta (I think)) has written about such things.


Within the shadows, go quietly.

 

[Moosey69]

I've heard from friends living in areas with both kinds that the Whitetail bucks are much more agressive then Muley bucks. They see Whiteys breeding or trying to breed muley does but rarely if ever Muley bucks trying whitetail does.

 

[scpaisley]

I call them Whuleys. I tried like heck to get on one here in CO over the bow season. Heres a thread that might help.
http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID32/1187.html

 

[treedagain]

I have seen a few in wyo. still very rare to find one that is obviusly a hybrid

 

[polarbear]

Last year on my land in Eastern Washington there was a whitetail doe with twin mule deer fawns on her. About 18 years ago I shot a 3x3 whitie/mulie cross. They never seem to develop decent racks.
Eric

Ultra liberal, wolf loving, illiterate, gay, hippie midgets on crack piss me off!!!!

 

[west]

Its hard to find a cross because more often then not the offspring of a white and mule are genetically inferior and tend to die off young from disease



"blaming guns for violence is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'donnell being fat."

 

[dutch]

I always heard a mule deer was a cross between the white tail and the blacktail? something like that.
dutch
http://coloradohuntandfish.blogspot.com

 

[life2extreme]

Here is one that my mother shot a few years back near Hyannis, NE on the Niobrara River bottom where muleys and white's live together. Not a real great pic, it was dark and it's with a cell phone. But you can see how the one side has the one main beam and how the others splits.

Aim Center Mass

 

[completesportsman]

Wasn't there speculation that the Wayne Zaft buck from Alberta was a cross? Seems like I remember hearing or reading that when the buck was killed.

____________________________________________________________________
Success is failure that tried one more time

 

[Outdoors]

>I always heard a mule deer
>was a cross between the
>white tail and the blacktail?
>something like that.
>dutch
>http://coloradohuntandfish.blogspot.com


Eastern Whitetails migrated to SW then up Pacific Coast becoming Blacktail. Blacktail then migrated east towards Rocky Mtns and bred with Eastern Whitetails with the result being Mule Deer. In the SW, the Eastern Whitetails became Coues over time.

That is what I recall from DNA deer study I say a couple of years ago.

 

[Deernut]

LAST EDITED ON Nov-04-09 AT 11:51PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Nov-04-09 AT 11:49?PM (MST)

Whitetails and mule deer do indeed hybridize. I have published several magazine articles, a book chapter and devoted a section to this topic in my book "Deer of the Southwest." Forum rules prohibit me from adding a link to my website but you can find it. I am involved with genetic research now for the Boone & Crockett Club and within 6 months we will have a good genetic test that can be used to identify 50 : 50 hybrids, 25 : 75 hybrids and maybe a few more backcrossed generations. The confusing thing about all this is hybrids are rare and when they occur they are not always 50 : 50 so it's complex. The males are sterile and the females are not but usually backcross with mule deer. More often than not it is a whitetail buck and mule deer doe. If you want to learn more, you can find me on the web fairly easily.

Here's a few hybrid pics:

Besides genetics, the only way to diagnose a hybrid is the metatarsal gland on the OUTSIDE of the hind legs. WT are less than 1" long and MD are more than 4". The deer in the previous post looks like a mule deer to me. Here's a hybrid:

JIM
Jim Heffelfinger
Wildlife Biologist
Tucson, Arizona

 

[NMRaptor]

I read somwhere that in places where muledeer and whitetail deer coexist that over time whitetails will over take mulies. The explanation was that because whitetails are generally more aggressive during the rut and as a result whitetail bucks will breed muledeer does but muledeer bucks will not breed with whitetail does. I've seen crossbreeds before in NE New Mexico. As recently as this fall, I saw a whitetail/muley buck with a group of three muley bucks and about six or seven muley does. This buck looked more like a whitetail deer but with a slightly smaller tail. One thing that was evident was that the whitetail/muley buck could not stot like muledeer. When spooked, it also didn't raise its tail while running like a typical whitetail buck. It looked healthy and had an average size body. It had about a 120 class 8 pt rack.
-Raptor

 

[west]

very cool stuff deernut. Do you guys have any ideas on how much crossbreading goes on in areas that have strong herds of whitetail and muledeer?


"blaming guns for violence is like blaming spoons for Rosie O'donnell being fat."

 

[BBB]

Thanks for chiming in Deernut. I've always enjoyed reading your research.

 

[Deernut]

I know Val Geist has written about whitetails taking over and outcompeting mule deer through hybridization. Val is a friend, but I disagree with him on this one. The survival of hybrid offspring is very low and I don't think hybridization will ever have a population-level effect - just a random curiosity. Hybridization has been documented both ways - mule deer males and whitetail females and the other way around, but it is mostly wt males. Bill Wishart in Alberta had captive WT, MD and hybrids and studied them. One of his students Susan Lingle documented that hybrids cannot stott even if they are 7/8 MD (although if you read the report they did have a 7/8 MD stott). Still it seems that hybrids can't. They have a confused run.

Jim Heffelfinger