Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
12-30-2005, 01:34 PM
#13
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
RE: Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
I bow to what others say, especially Brutal Attack, technically they do interbreed occasionally. But I personally think it's damned rare, in the herds I hunt.
I think the incidence of interbreeding get wildly exaggerated.Some guy sees a whitetail with a sticker point off a tine, and yup that there's one of them crossbreeds.
I hunt an area with a true intermix of whitetails and muleys out in eastern MT. Right now, after a rough winter in '03/'04 its 2:1 muleys to whitetails. Before that, it was 1:1. The deer intermix, but with whitetails tending to be closer to alfalfa fields and muleys a little more toward the rough broken country. It's pretty clear whitetails take priority. They take the prime habitat and the muleys fill in around the edges.
Ihave watched rutty muley bucks approach whitetail does with sex on the brain, then turn off when they see it's a whitetail. I've watched the same show with a rutty whitetail buck, and he'll alsoturn and go away. I've seen near-fights between muley and whitetail bucks, but I've never seen crossbreeding or any deer that looked like a cross. I don't doubt that once every decade somebody gets his wires crossed and humps the wrong doe, but it's really not worth all the time some people spend talking about it.
Just my opinion, applied only to the areas I hunt.
I think the incidence of interbreeding get wildly exaggerated.Some guy sees a whitetail with a sticker point off a tine, and yup that there's one of them crossbreeds.
I hunt an area with a true intermix of whitetails and muleys out in eastern MT. Right now, after a rough winter in '03/'04 its 2:1 muleys to whitetails. Before that, it was 1:1. The deer intermix, but with whitetails tending to be closer to alfalfa fields and muleys a little more toward the rough broken country. It's pretty clear whitetails take priority. They take the prime habitat and the muleys fill in around the edges.
Ihave watched rutty muley bucks approach whitetail does with sex on the brain, then turn off when they see it's a whitetail. I've watched the same show with a rutty whitetail buck, and he'll alsoturn and go away. I've seen near-fights between muley and whitetail bucks, but I've never seen crossbreeding or any deer that looked like a cross. I don't doubt that once every decade somebody gets his wires crossed and humps the wrong doe, but it's really not worth all the time some people spend talking about it.
Just my opinion, applied only to the areas I hunt.
12-31-2005, 10:30 AM
#14
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location:
Posts: 1,572
RE: Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
I deal alot with hybrids of other species in my work andalot of times a certain animal may actually be a hybrid but exhibit 90%-99% of the characteristics of one species or the other. This makes visual assessment of hybrids very difficultand often times an animal may actually be a hybrid but look almost 100% like a whitetail or a muley without DNA testing. So my point is there may be many more hybrids out there than you think they just don't look like it.
01-04-2006, 01:37 PM
#16
Typical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 590
RE: Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
Nice buck. Not wanting to be argumentative, but your picture illustrates my point about how people call deer hybrids with very little rationale for it. I don't see that deer as a hybrid. That's a muley buck that just didn't fork his back tines.
01-04-2006, 05:25 PM
#18
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
Posts: 419
RE: Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
I have to agree with Dirt2. That's a great buck mewlie, but it looks like to me like a 100% mule deer that's G2s don't bifurcate. I grew up in Eastern Montana andI've seen countless thousands of deer in areas where both species overlap. I've never seen a single one that looked in any way shape or form like a hybrid. Then again I've never seen a wild mountain lion either, but I'm pretty sure they exist.
AK Jeff
AK Jeff
01-04-2006, 05:40 PM
#19
Typical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: British Columbia
Posts: 694
RE: Whitetail - Mule Deer Cross
ORIGINAL: Dirt2
Nice buck. Not wanting to be argumentative, but your picture illustrates my point about how people call deer hybrids with very little rationale for it. I don't see that deer as a hybrid. That's a muley buck that just didn't fork his back tines.
Nice buck. Not wanting to be argumentative, but your picture illustrates my point about how people call deer hybrids with very little rationale for it. I don't see that deer as a hybrid. That's a muley buck that just didn't fork his back tines.
agree also, the lack of brow tines says a lot, also lack of beading.
