Earth Almanac: September/October 2005

Our Other Deer

White-tailed deer now occur in all 48 contiguous states. But in the western half of our nation, the local deer are likely to have different features. From a distance they seem to be whitetails, but when you train your glasses on them, striking differences emerge. They are bigger, stockier, darker. The ears appear oversize. The tail is smaller, tipped with black, and doesn't flip up to signal alarm. They run like springboks, sometimes leaping eight feet off the ground. They are mule deer—the deer of cowboy song that “played” on the range under cloudless skies. Never is mule-deer watching finer than when foothill aspens go gold and the big bucks drop their guard, lowering swollen necks, pawing frosty earth, tending harems, sparring with rivals. The best viewing is at dawn, dusk, or in moonlight. Enjoy these original deer of the American West when and where you can. In some areas invading whitetails are hybridizing them out of existence.