Addicting
Well-known member
Saw this at a shop today and thought it would be a good one to share. Here in MI so no chance is a mule deer unless the taxidermist was have fun.
Hybrid looking rack
- Thread starter Addicting
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seeth07
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Every now and then a mule deer gets shot in WI so there is a chance! However, that just looks like a cool whitetail
Djfan
Well-known member
My buddy shot one (and had a shoulder mount made of it), that had a white tail right side, and a mulie left side. It was very cool looking.
HuntTalk Freak
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I had an old buck that looked part mule deer here in central TX for a few years. Only seen him in person one time a few years ago and I let him walk. He had the split G2’s and G3’s on both sides if I remember correctly. Very narrow rack and he looked older than dirt. I’ll see if I can find the old pics.
ImBillT
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Apparently antlers aren’t the way to tell hybrids.
I’ve killed some 3x3’s, and my wife killed a 4x4 that if all you saw were the racks, you might wonder if they were whitetails or hybrids. I’ve seen three deer that looked like 4x4 mule deer on one side and 8pt whitetails on the other side. All were in an area with both mule deer and white tails. On all of the dead ones, the tarsal glads and tails were 100% indicative of mule deer, so they weren’t hybrids. I had one young buck on cam for two years that was on cam with both whitetail and mule deer does. He also appeared to have an intermediate position for his tarsal glad, which would indicate a hybrid. As soon as I told someone, I couldn’t turn the pictures up. I could 100% be wrong. To hunt in an area with both, and see non-standard mule deer antlers all the time, I’m surprised that I can’t confirm a hybrid, but I can’t.
Heffelfinger has done some great documentary work on hybrids, but as far as I know, most of it is in AZ. If that’s the case, I don’t know how much carryover there would be if you were talking about eastern whitetails and mule deer in the plains compared to desert mule deer and Cous deer. I haven’t read enough of his info to know how much research he did outside of AZ. Whatever the case, he seems to suggest that although hybrids do exist, they’re so rare that they almost don’t exist, and that’s even when they inhabit the same areas.
I’ve killed some 3x3’s, and my wife killed a 4x4 that if all you saw were the racks, you might wonder if they were whitetails or hybrids. I’ve seen three deer that looked like 4x4 mule deer on one side and 8pt whitetails on the other side. All were in an area with both mule deer and white tails. On all of the dead ones, the tarsal glads and tails were 100% indicative of mule deer, so they weren’t hybrids. I had one young buck on cam for two years that was on cam with both whitetail and mule deer does. He also appeared to have an intermediate position for his tarsal glad, which would indicate a hybrid. As soon as I told someone, I couldn’t turn the pictures up. I could 100% be wrong. To hunt in an area with both, and see non-standard mule deer antlers all the time, I’m surprised that I can’t confirm a hybrid, but I can’t.
Heffelfinger has done some great documentary work on hybrids, but as far as I know, most of it is in AZ. If that’s the case, I don’t know how much carryover there would be if you were talking about eastern whitetails and mule deer in the plains compared to desert mule deer and Cous deer. I haven’t read enough of his info to know how much research he did outside of AZ. Whatever the case, he seems to suggest that although hybrids do exist, they’re so rare that they almost don’t exist, and that’s even when they inhabit the same areas.
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