Muley or Whitetail?

What type of deer is this?

  • Total voters
    185
jethunter said:
30 years ago I was hunting with a guy who shot what looked like a whitetail excpt that it had a perfect 4x4 mule deer rack. Other than the antlers it didn't look like a hybrid except a very faint black tip on the tail that you couldn't see unless you were holding it. It didn't matter to my buddy since he had tags for both species, except we didn't know which tag to throw on it. We took it to the local F&W office and asked which tag should be used but they just told us if we shot it as a whitetail to use the whitetail tag, or vice versa.
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My guess is it was a whitetail. Hybrids are extremely rare....strange antler configurations not so much. I've seen several whitetails with forked racks and vice versa. I doubt any were hybrids....just deer with weird antlers. You tag it for the tail...that's the true indicator. Not unusual for a whitetail to have a small black tip on its tail. Everyone wants to think the saw or shot a hybrid but the truth is, you likely didn't....they are that rare and stories of their existence and most often just that....stories.

Kind of scary that nearly 1/4 of the people thought the OP's deer was a whitetail.......
 
Hybrid deer are not all that scarce. I used to hunt with a retired game biologist, who had a couple extra degrees on his title. We were once in his truck on a back trail, when a buck appeared about 60 yarda away. I looked, then asked what he was. The biologist took a good look, then said he was a hybrid. We didn't shoot him, but studied him, instead.
Hybrids only happen one way, and I forget which it is. But it is a buck from one specie that can hybrid impregnate the opposite doe, but the reverse can't be done. But I forget if it is a buck whitetail or a buck mule deer that does it. A hybrid cannot reproduce.
This same biologist was also one of the select group of Boone & Crocket scorers. That is, when a head that ranks in the top two or three in B & C is entered, it must be scored by their committee. He was one of this committee and had made several trips to the US to measure top heads.
I measured for the BC Trophy Record Club. On two occassions I was one of the scorers on Big Buck Contests in BC. We had the odd hybrid deer to contend with. We always conferred with this biologist, who was also one of the scorers, on doing a hybrid. He had a formula, used with judgement, as to score a hybrid head as a wt or muley.
 
c-fbmi said:
I'm calling cross, white rear end patch not big enough for true mulie, however small tail with black tip typical mulie, ears are big but not too big to be a whitey, horns real iffy at this stage of growth. I took a hybrid in Sask a few years back and I'm guessing that this photo is of another. Coloration is typical whitey, not grey enough for a true mulie.
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True enough about the color, but mulies change color in summer, and are similar to white-tail for a few months.
 
hybrids

H4831 said:
Hybrid deer are not all that scarce. I used to hunt with a retired game biologist, who had a couple extra degrees on his title. We were once in his truck on a back trail, when a buck appeared about 60 yarda away. I looked, then asked what he was. The biologist took a good look, then said he was a hybrid. We didn't shoot him, but studied him, instead.
Hybrids only happen one way, and I forget which it is. But it is a buck from one specie that can hybrid impregnate the opposite doe, but the reverse can't be done. But I forget if it is a buck whitetail or a buck mule deer that does it. A hybrid cannot reproduce.
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Well, you almost nailed it H4831, so I will help you out a little:
1) WT Does, like most women, like to be chased around a bit, and the WT buck knows this and does it.
2) MD Does dont, they just stand there and get bred, no chase involved.
3) So when MD & WT inhabit the same area, if a WT buck happens across a MD doe and she just "stands" there, he takes advantage and is happy he didnt have to waste time chasing for a change. So LOTS of MD does get bred by WT Bucks
4) On the other hand, when a MD buck happens across a WT doe, and she wants to be "chased" around a bit he gives up on her thinking she isnt ready yet. So not too many MD bucks breed WT does because they dont chase, because they generally dont have to.

They can both impregnate the other species, but given the MD wont chase the WT's it generally doesnt happen
 
H4831 said:
Hybrid deer are not all that scarce. I used to hunt with a retired game biologist, who had a couple extra degrees on his title. We were once in his truck on a back trail, when a buck appeared about 60 yarda away. I looked, then asked what he was. The biologist took a good look, then said he was a hybrid. We didn't shoot him, but studied him, instead.
Hybrids only happen one way, and I forget which it is. But it is a buck from one specie that can hybrid impregnate the opposite doe, but the reverse can't be done. But I forget if it is a buck whitetail or a buck mule deer that does it. A hybrid cannot reproduce.
This same biologist was also one of the select group of Boone & Crocket scorers. That is, when a head that ranks in the top two or three in B & C is entered, it must be scored by their committee. He was one of this committee and had made several trips to the US to measure top heads.
I measured for the BC Trophy Record Club. On two occassions I was one of the scorers on Big Buck Contests in BC. We had the odd hybrid deer to contend with. We always conferred with this biologist, who was also one of the scorers, on doing a hybrid. He had a formula, used with judgement, as to score a hybrid head as a wt or muley.
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In the areas I hunt, whitetail and mule deer over-lap. In 32 years hunting that area, I've only seen 1 for certain hybrid. And it was pretty cool to see, because it was just so obviously a hybrid. The big thing was the tail, which was half-n-half mulie-whitetail, the rest looked like a sorta mulie...
 
sheephunter said:
My guess is it was a whitetail. Hybrids are extremely rare....strange antler configurations not so much. I've seen several whitetails with forked racks and vice versa. I doubt any were hybrids....just deer with weird antlers. You tag it for the tail...that's the true indicator. Not unusual for a whitetail to have a small black tip on its tail. Everyone wants to think the saw or shot a hybrid but the truth is, you likely didn't....they are that rare and stories of their existence and most often just that....stories.

Kind of scary that nearly 1/4 of the people thought the OP's deer was a whitetail.......
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I'd agree it was a whitetail but we checked with the local CO anyway just for interest sake to see which tag they would say was correct. In their view either tag was legal.

I've seen two hybrids in the wild in the Foremost area. They can't run like a whitetail or stot like a mulie. They literally seem to trip over themselves and look like a drunk when they try to run away. ("Stot" is the proper name for the peculiar hopping gait of mule deer).

I've read biologists that say WT bucks breeding mulie does is fairly common in areas where they intermingle. But the hybrid offspring suffer a lower survival rate than either species in the pure, so adult hybrids are relatively rare.

As for 1/4 of the respondents not recognising a mule deer, I'd guess most of them probably aren't deer hunters or they don't hunt in mule deer territory. Hunters in a lot of eastern canada don't need to know the difference between the species because they don't have mule deer populations.
 
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The only way to confirm a deer is a hybrid is by DNA.....

Tarsal gland measurements are a good indicator but after that.....it's nothing but speculation.
 
it's definetly a mulie. look at the bum. it's white and has a rope like tail. white tail just have a white tail. and when it flips up you see the white underneath the tail.
it's a mulie for sure.
 
btridge said:
anyone calling this a whitetail needs to go back to school before they go out hunting!!!!
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I am willing to bet that alot of the people who hit whitetail, are from Ont/Que, where they only see whitetails...

I have never seen a live muley, so i find it very hard to tell the difference, especially from a pic...
 
Whitetails moved into the Skeena Valley via the Nechako and Fraser Valleys in the last 20 years. Speculation is they are more aggressive and will push out the Mulies. Time will tell. That is a mulie by shape to me. Whitetails are more angular.
 
You would feel pretty foolish if you cancelled a whitetail tag for that buck, and went through a game check. You would be in deep doo doo ......

Please don't post a picture of a caribou and poll to see if 'the easterners' think it's an elk ........:cool:
 
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