Columbian white-tailed and black-tailed deer share the same habitat in some parts of western Oregon. In the winter they turn more grey. This color variation doesnt occur in black-tailed deer. JSTOR, Available here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3504024, National Wildlife Federation, Available here: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Mule-Deer, State of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Available here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=muledeer.main, Mule Deer Foundation, Available here: https://muledeer.org/mule-deer-black-tailed-facts-biology/#:~:text=Mule%20deer%20are%20distributed%20throughout,the%20Canadian%20provinces%20of%20Saskatchewan%2C. 2019 -2022Outdoorworld.reviews - Reliable Outdoor Reviews. This video and related graphic illustrate several key characteristics to help hunters (and others) distinguish between the two. Thank you for reading! Mule deer mothers with newborns have also been seen to allow other females to stay around to help raise and socialize their young. Depending on the location, the climate, and the time of the year, it should be fairly easy to tell the difference between the two. Mule deer, as a general rule, like to live in rugged areas. At first glance, mule deer and whitetail deer look the same. White-Tailed Deer vs Black-Tailed Deer: What Are the Differences? Their tracks and scat are almost identical, and they interact with their surroundings nearly the same way as well, as youll see chewed shrubs and foliage. This is not a common phenomenon for blacktail deer. These deer vary in size based on the location where they are found. Bucks are 32 38 high at the shoulder with a total length of around 3.2 feet. Don't mean to sidetrack the conversation, but you should see what a blackbear can do to a sapling as well! This is another quick way to identify one from the other. The Antlers Most pure mule deer have forks in their antlers. Taxonomically, they are the same, but you can see a clear difference in each subspecies when you view them. Ribbon snakes love water, but are excellent climbers too. The mule deer was given its name because of its elongated, large ears that are reminiscent of a mules ears. The differences in the tails of these deer is the best and easiest way to differentiate between the two species. The entire mating season lasts from October to December. Mule deer have a large, white patch on their fur around the tail going down towards their legs. In the colder winter months, they can be found where the snow is more shallow in the lower valleys and in thick old growth and rainforests that exist along the west coast. White-tailed deer tend to live in a variety of places. 1972. Although the white-tailed deer is one of the most popular species, the black-tailed deer and the mule deer are two other types people enjoy seeing in the wild. But only males grow antlers. Alfalfa is easily digestible but will not come cheap. They just tuck tail (or, raise tail, rather) and run for the hills. Genetic samples from far outside of the "cross-over" zone were used to establish those value ranges. White-tailed deer eat a greater variety of foods because they can access more foods. Interesting. Deer come in many shapes and sizes despite seeming like monolithic creatures. The blacktail deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ) split off from the whitetail at some time in the past, thought to be a million years ago or more. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Bucks love the small saplings, and yes, they're blacktails. Whitetail and mule deer are two related deer . Meaning that they fork as they grow. A mule deer will generally be larger than a whitetail. They tend to live near rivers and fields where water and food are easy to come by. As you can see, many different types of deer roam across North (and South) America. Whitetails almost always have brown rumps. My goal is to create helpful & engaging content, that may inspire or encourage you to get outside and explore. The white-tailed deer is larger than the black-tailed deer in every measure. Here are eight of them. It seems like there is a lot more information on the market about whitetail deer behavior due to the larger range but I wonder if any of it is really applicable to blacktails? This is when its tail is the most prominent. Also, most mule deer will have very short brow tines, or none at all. Contact the AZ Animals editorial team. In fact, several species and subspecies of deer are found throughout the world today. With a shoulder height of 31 42 and a nose-to-tail length of 3.9 6.9 ft. A mature mule deer buck will tip the scales from 160 to 330 lbs. Mule Deer The average mule deer weight in Colorado is over 250 pounds, while an Illinois whitetail buck weighs just around 200 pounds. In the southern parts of their ranges, whitetail deer will not mate until January or February. That said, its very difficult to use this parameter alone to make the decision to shoot. Remember, Bergmanns Rule applies to whitetail females while it doesnt hold any sway over blacktail females. The antlers of the mule deer and blacktail are bifurcated, which means they fork as they grow. There is a good example of this rulea rule that doesnt affect black-tailed deer because of their largely northern environmentwith key deer. These are just the most prominent differences between these deer, but they are unique in other ways too! Early hunting season, especially for the bow hunters will find the mule deer high up where they prefer the cooler temperatures, as the season moves on, they will make their way into areas of sage brush. These deer are found within coastal regions, and their size results from living in that biome. Named for Sitka, Alaska, as they are found mostly in Alaska. Sitka black-tailed deer are closely related to the larger Columbia black-tailed deer of the Pacific Northwest, and both are considered subspecies of the (even larger) mule deer of the American West. Hunters have been chasing whitetails and mule deer for thousands of years. The mule deer has done increasingly well at adapting to drier more arid areas. Thanks, Mule Deer vs Whitetail 8 Key Differences To Tell Them Apart, Mule Deer vs. Whitetail Deer Visual Differences, indigenous to the Western North American belt, Mounting And Sighting In A Rifle Scope Updated [2021], Elk vs Moose The 7 Key Differences To Help You Tell The Two Apart, Best Single Stage Reloading Press Top 5 For 2021, Best Rubber Hunting Boots Reviews And Buyers Guide, Best Light For Coyote Hunting Full Buyers Guide, Best Night Vision Scope For Coyote Hunting Full Buyers Guide, Best Coyote Decoy For 2021 Full Buyers Guide. The Columbia blacktails have bigger racks.. The white-tailed deer is larger than the black-tailed deer, weighing up to 405 lbs, while the black-tailed deer weighs 225 lbs at its maximum. With trophy deer tipping the scale at 130-150 pounds. Adult buck mule deers can range from 4 to 7 feet long and can stand up to 4 feet tall before their antlers. The whitetail's metatarsals are below the mid-point of the lower leg, less than 1 inch long, and surrounded by white hairs. They usually have more tines branch off the one long main tine. A whitetail gets its name from its tail. Whitetail deer has a restless tail. Though both species are related to one another (black-tailed deer being the offshoot progeny of whitetail), several, subtle differences set them apart. Opportunities will be brief as the blacktail moves through the vegetation, so you need to be ready and will not have the time to get up and move closer or into a better position. These deer are found throughout all of Central America and portions of northern South America. Specifically, theyll eat prickly lettuce, Gambel oak, quaking aspen, rice grass, goldeneye, and a wide variety of other foods. Their favorite meals are ferns, huckleberry, blackberries, apples, cranberry, elderberry, and more. Here's a closer look at that business model. We may receive a commission with purchases through certain links. Coat colors greatly vary in mule deer and whitetail deer species. Their facial fur follows this same pattern as well, with mule deer having brighter facial features with more white fur. The black-tailed deer has a much smaller range than the mule deer, even though they overlap in some areas. The black-tailed deer is a subspecies of the mule deer. It's almost impossible to distinguish between the East Siberian moose and the Alaska moose. Shotguns. Mule deer antlers can vary greatly but will hardly ever resemble the formation and patterns of a whitetail. Mule deer usually have small or missing brow tines with bifurcated antler branching, which means tines that split once off of a main beam, and then again toward the tips. The ranges of each species have been well documented. They can be considered the same sub-species. Well provide several different ways to tell these animals apart! Black-tailed females can reach up to 130lbs while whitetail females generally reach 155lbs. In mating season and other times of the year, however, mule deer appear to form larger herds of females who all share the same mother and males from different families. Meanwhile, the black-tailed deer weighs up to 225 lbs, grows 3.7 ft tall, and measures between 4 and 5.5 ft long! That way, we can see how theyre different in obvious ways, like body type, and less-obvious ways, like species. This is all about heat dissipation. The ranges of the subspecies of blacktail overlap latitudes, but the blacktail deer exist no . Crappy Weather/ Days off just not lining up for Coyotes. Size varies greatly from region to region and from one subspecies to another. Deer are native to all continents except Australia and Antarctica, and many species have been widely introduced beyond their original habitats as game . That makes it important for hunters and other wildlife lovers to know the visual difference between the two. Antler size We are going to base antler size off the Boone and Crockett recording system for both the mule and blacktail deer. Ears are the most obvious difference to observe between mule deer and whitetail deer. This is actually a pretty unique characteristic as most other deer in North America have white tails, hence the whitetail deer, while mule deers have mostly whitetails with a small black tip. Its when you start looking a little closer that youll start to notice some of the physical differences. Just ordered a copy. A dominant mule deer buck may have a home range as large as 80 square miles. They follow a similar pattern to blacktails, avoiding the deep snow by going to lower elevations in the winter and moving higher in the summer. Black-tailed deer are descendants of whitetail, the latter of which has walked the landscape of North America for roughly 3.5 million years. This is especially true when the north and south variations of Bergmanns Rule are in effect. Mule deer typically have a little bigger and heavier body, even though you may have a hard time seeing this difference between whitetail and mule deer in the field. A whitetail is a whitetail, and there is nothing else like it. in 2011 the plaintiffs noted in oral arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that the difference is between a claimed 21 deer per square mile carrying capacity in the project EIS, . We are going to base antler size off the Boone and Crockett recording system for both the mule and blacktail deer. But mule deer also have some white in their tails, so whats the difference? They live in Alaska in the U.S., British Columbia in Canada, California, Oregon, and Washington State in the continental United States. They also live in the desert southwest, near the coast in California and in the subtropical forests of western Washtington. They are mostly browsers and do not spend much time grazing. The mule deer has a larger maximum size than the black-tailed deer. Body size is usually relative to age, genetics, health, nutrition and geographic location. Contact the AZ Animals editorial team. Our blacktails in the Cascades have some muley influence and migrate. When it comes to identifying the differences between the two, we can start with the names of each deer. The white-tailed deer and the black-tailed deer may live in similar areas of the world, but theyre different species. Weight: Up to 94kg (females up to 56kg). 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