1/2 Mule deer 1/2 Whitetail

[fishvince01]

Is such a thing possible?

my cousin shot a deer this fall southeast of Baudette. It was a very dark deer skin, it has a "whitetail" tail. And its horns came forward like a whitetail but slit like a mule deer.

Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

[BLACKJACK]

fishvince, yes its possible. Its happens more frequently out west because they have more mule deer around.

What do you mean, the 'horns are slit by a mule deer?' The horns on a typical whitetail have one main beam with each subsequent point growing off the main beam. On a typical mule deer, the antlers keep forking or branching off, you can't identify a main beam, the more points it has, the more forks you will see.

[icehousebob]

I hunted for many years by Wyoming's Devil's Tower, and when we would glass herds of feeding deer, we would often see crossbreds. I was told biologists have studied them and from cellular examination, were able to tell that it was almost always a mule deer buck crossed with a whitetail doe. I'm not sure how you would end up with that a Baudette, though.

[PerchJerker]

Crossbreeds happen. I've heard it's because a whitetail buck in rut is more aggressive than a mulie buck in rut, and that the crossbreeding is whitetail bucks breeding mulie does. My personal observations are that mulie bucks following does are much more relaxed and social than whitetail bucks.

This year I shot a mule deer that I'm pretty sure has whitetail blood in him. He has a nice rack -- 23 inch spread and 13 inch G-2s -- but only 1 of the G-2s has a fork and it's not that big of a big fork. Also, the bases are very gnarly and he had 4 inch eye guards or brow tines, which is a whitetail trait and not a mulie trait. Looking at the deer he is obviously a mulie. Looking at only the rack you you would swear it was a whitetail. We saw lots of whitetails in the same areas as the mule deer.

If anyone wants to see photos of the buck I could email them.

I think an occasional mule deer gets shot in MN, usually along the border with the Dakotas. Both Dakotas have mule deer.

[Borch]

There was aslo one shot near cambridge about 6 years ago. Nice buck too.

I saw one just west of Willmar about 8 yars ago. Where they come from I don't know. Out west, game farms, it's anyones guess.

[fishvince01]

thanks guys