Has Anyone else hunted "Burro Deer" ? Any Stories about them?

[Mustangs Rule]

For the record, Burro Deer are also called Desert Mule Deer, a distinct subspecies found in our extreme low deserts from West Texas, through southernmost New Mexico, Arizona and California also across northernmost Mexico where they are know as The Mexican Mule Deer or "Los Buro's with one "R".

Mostly in Mexico the hunts are tracking hunts but that might have changed to spotting and shooting them at a distance, or not. They tend to hang out in cactus tangles.

They get their name from having huge ears which act as cooling radiators. They are often lighter in color, golden almost to reflect back the sunlight. They tend to be long legged and tall as they engage in distant treks for water. With a good diet they can really become large with very fine antlers, though all the ones I shot were on the harshest deserts and were small.

Like Desert Bighorn Sheep and the Sonoran Desert "Ghost Antelope" Burro Deer have kidneys that are specialized to conserve water from the plants they eat. Their piss is really concentrated and stinks terribly.

When it's available, they heavily feed on Mesquite Tree seed pods, Mesquite is member of the Locust family, think "Honey Locust". known for being sweet and i found their meat to have a sweetness to it then.

Anyway, I hunted them for over ten years, always in desert wilderness and doing solo often multi day tracking hunts. I wondered if anyone else has also hunted them and has any experiences to share.

MR

 

[AntelopeEater]

I live in Southern Nevada, is there actually a difference between "regular" Desert Mule Deer and the deer you are referring to?

Mule Deer are called mule deer because they have large ears like mules.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

I live in Southern Nevada, is there actually a difference between "regular" Desert Mule Deer and the deer you are referring to?

Mule Deer are called mule deer because they have large ears like mules.

Yes there are Burro deer in southern Nevada and i hunted them right on the state border with herds going back and forth. Right up around Charlston Peak you will find them.

And yes there are so many differences. If you took Rocky mountain Mule deer from extreme Northern Nevada and put them in extreme southern Nevada and vice versa, the mortality rate would be so high for both.

The Burro deer has larger ears than the already large ears of the Rocky Mountain Mule deer. Their ears have blood vessels close to the surface for cooling blood, so much like the desert bighorn compared Rocky Mountain Big Horn

The Burro deer's fur is thinner, their skin thinner, they are lighter, they have more sweat glands, the loops of Henles, where water is saved in their kidneys are much longer in these desert animals, and they come into rut in January.

The dividing line is right around Winnemucca Nevada. look to the west and the Sierra Mountains are very high going south, they block rain. Going north the Sierra Nevada Mountains are thousands of feet lower, so much more rain hits northern Nevada because of this, different biomes.
Also the Burro deer are really like whitetails in their defense mechanisms. When scared they just disappear in really thick dry jungles of Agave, Ocotillo, Joshua Trees and Mesquite forests, that can be 10 to 20 feet high. Like Cous Deer they are skulkers, and do not anywhere as much just go bounding away bouncing up and down in open country Like Rocky Mountain Mule deer.

And they taste better due to a sweeter diet, Cactus fruits, mesquite seeds pods, agave flowers, and tender green Ocotillo leaves.

Thank you for your post.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Regarding animal ears, I have had many breeds of horses. The ears on mustangs are small, thick covered with deep fur and hair inside and out, They are made to fight frostbite. The ears on an Arabian horse are longer bigger, very little hair, actually smooth not fluffy with veins near the surface,,,made for cooling their blood near their brains.

The Rocky Mountain Mule Deer and the Burro Deer are very distinct sub-species.
I would even suspect that the Burro deer has incredibly more immunity to rattle snake venom. Horses are so susceptible to being bit in the nose when grazing, same for deer. And so much of their range overlaps with the range of the genuinely deadly Mohave Green rattlesnake.

 

[backcountry_sassn]

There is no real difference between them besides the fact that they are regionally adapted. They have less fat because they dont have the feed to build fat and their body burns fat quicker while trying to keep cool on the hot heat, and can survive on leaner feed because th dont need the insulation. The only reason they would have trouble if you transplanted the so called "burro deer" up north is because they wouldn't know how to build up the fat to survive the winter. And the northern deer wouldn't know how to live on less water. Other then knowledge, there is nothing physically that would make them not survive the other climate.

Even with antler growth, "desert deer" only grow bigger because the feed in the desert is better for Horn growth, and they can get good feed before northern deer because they dont have snow. And since a big factor in horn growth is the health of the doe while the buck is a fetus, the best time for feed on desert deer is the winter. So the habitat provides better opportunity for bucks to get bigger.