What is the difference between mule deer and black tails?

Mule deer are believed to be the hybridized result of inter-species breeding between whitetails and blacktails and are thought to have developed in the last few thousand years.

The mule deer will average somewhat larger in both body and antlers than the blacktail. The mule deer typically inhabits the inland mountain and basin regions between the high plains and the Pacific coastal ranges. Blacktails inhabit the Pacific coastal areas up into the coastal mountains.

Howard,

Howard, Sorry about that. Actually there are only two species of deer in the US. Odocoileus virginianus (the whitetail) and odocoileus hemionus (the Mule deer), the black tail deer of the pacific coast which range well inland (especailly in the areas of No. California and Southern Oregon where I was raised, are really a subspecies of mule deer. You really can't tell a blacktail and a mule deer apart easily other than the size. In areas (which are becoming more numerous) where mule deer and white tails co-exist, the whitetail is usually the more dominant animal and wins most of the habitat battles, which is becoming a real problem in many areas of the Western US originally populated by Mulies. Also, where there is cross-breeding, the resultant bucks have the characteristic whitetail antlers of a single branch, rather than the dual branched antlers of mule deer. Good shooting, EB

Excellent question! Part of my PhD thesis is on exactly that! (If anyone here really has the answer I'd like to know too--- just don't tell my funders)

It is true that a black-tailed deer (odocoileus hemionus columbianus) is related to the Rocky Mountain Mule deer (o.hemionus hemionus)however a lot of speculation exists as to which came first (the chicken or the egg?) the Sitka black-tail (o.hemionus sitkensis) is also related but current thought is that they are the same deer with morphological adaptations. Genetically it is difficult to find alleles which exist in one sub-species but not the other. All of the species of hemionus are closely related to virginianus (White-tailed) and Rocky Mountain mule deer are genetically closer to virginianus (in some studies) than they are to black-tailed. This is shown from mitochondrial DNA studies. Some of my work is testing the theory put forth by Geist that the last ice-age seperated North America and the only two hemionus species were columbianus and sitkensis, once the glacires retreated larger animals (dispersers) re-occupied areas to the south and in greater elevation, this is where the last to evolve being the largest of the group the Rocky Mountain Mule Deer. It is hypothesized that some of the changes in Rocky Mountain mule deer were brought on by interbreeding with White-tailed deer. Fossil records show that the Whitetailed er is about 16 million years old and the "Mule Deer" is less than 25000 years old. I could ramble for hours..........very important question!

IV

quote:

Originally posted by EB:
You really can't tell a blacktail and a mule deer apart easily other than the size.

All the mulies that I've shot had white on the top part of their tails with black tips. And all the Blacktails had completely blacktails.

Someone forgot to mention where Odocoileus virginianus couesi fits in the picture since they're a small whitetail !Looks like some wildlife biologists are on line I is one!