Wyoming didn't want to sell me an antelope tag this year so I bought some leftover doe / fawn deer tags instead and paid a trespass fee to hunt on a ranch just outside of Sheridan.

There were lots of deer on the place, both muleys and whitetails. It was a great place for a meat hunter like myself but someone seeking a nice trophy might have been disappointed. I saw mostly does and fawns as well as a couple of small (3 x 3 or so) whitetail bucks.

One of the deer that I took was a real oddball. She was a "blocky" looking young doe with a dull grayish colored coat but no "mask" above her eyes. This deer had pair of small ears and a tail that's hard to describe. It wasn't the black-tipped rope like tail of a mule deer nor was it the "flag" of a whitetail. Just a plain gray tail with a small white rump. I never got to see her run, she just ambled out to feed and my shot dropped her in her tracks.

I also shot a mature whitetail doe and my partner shot a mule deer doe that were both textbook illustration examples of their species.

Unfortunately I didn't take pictures but does this sound like the might have been a whitetail / mule deer hybrid? Are hybrids like this common where both muleys and whitetails live together?

Whitetail/muledeer hybrids are not common but they do occur. It is believed that most such hybrids are from whitetail bucks and mule deer does as the whitetail seems to be the more aggressive breeder. It is not clear whether such hybrids are themselves fertile, but since no extensive population of apparently hybridized offspring exists the hybrids are likely infertile.

The mule deer itself is a species which came from hybridization of whitetails from the eastern side of the continent and Pacific blacktails and is a relatively recent species only going back about 5,000 years, if I recall the literature accurately.

Hmmm....blacktail+whitetail. Imagine, 50 shades of greytail deer.

The area around Sanderson, Texas has a number of Whitetail, mule deer crosses, They kill one every now and then..The area around Ft. Stockton Texas seem to have a few Albino Mule Deer, and a few paints show up on rare occasion.

I shot a mulie whitetail hybrid in Yuma County Colo about 15 years ago. Took it to the DOW office in Brush, Colo and they took tissue samples. Told me it came from a whitetail buck mating with a mulie doe. This one was a yearling buck I shot for meat.

Hybridization isn't that uncommon. I see them almost every year in the Washington Cascades where I hunt locally. There they are blacktail/ mule deer crosses and yes they are capable of breeding.

My son shot a mule whitetail hybrid north of Spokane Washington. Huge branching rack with 8" eye guards. Big bodied too, estimated he weighed over 300 lbs.

Dave

On my ranch bordering the Big Bend National Park I watched a smallish Whitetail kick the living squat out of about a 28" Mule deer, sometime later between Alpine and Marathon I saw it happen again with a Coues deer and a big muley...Those fast little whitetail with small horns that fit handily between those big wide spread Mule deer horns work those mule deer over big time, cut their face up pretty good, plus the whitetail appear to be faster on their feet and they are hi strung or hotter blooded..Beats going to a boxing match anyday.

So ???? Are the hybrids sterile?

I have no idea, and no way of knowing. you could ask Texas game and fish. I know mules are!, so it makes since the deer might be.

Hard to prove yeah or neah but my buddy in WY believes they are. Maybe some of the deer breeders know?

On our place in East Texas we have several pie bald deer. Kind of look like a paint. Not been able to get a picture yet.

quote:

Originally posted by Pancho:
So ???? Are the hybrids sterile?

Typically, yes. Just like mules, there will be an occasional individual which successfully reproduces, but it is believed to be the exception.

But such oddities do occur. Just today I was reading about crossing of the rare Pere David's Deer with Red Deer and the offspring being fertile. This is very exceptional with such a diverse genetic background between the two.