deer coloring?

[notellumcreek]

Ok, so this picture was taken early last fall, finally got around to posting it. This was taken at Pt Roberts, Washington, which is about 35 minutes south of Vancouver BC. If you dont know where that is look it up, very interesting place. But both these deer are surrounded by 3 sides ocean and the canadian border, so they dont really do a lot of extensive traveling. Both are young bucks, I am just wondering why the colors are completely different with supposedly the same 2 kinds of deer at the same time of year??  Interested to see if anyone has a good explanation.

[huntnphool]

a little closer look

[Button Nubbs]

the red one has its summer coat and they grey one has its winter coat?

[notellumcreek]

Thanks Huntinphool for zooming in on the pic. Yeah, I guess maybe the deer are just in different phases then?

[Moose-head]

The one on the left is Canadian?

[Kowsrule30]

Looks Asian to me for some reason....   

[Kola16]

Looks Asian to me for some reason....   

Look at the eyes......not asian   


Back to the original question, it could be diet. One deer likes apples, and the other likes pears 

[notellumcreek]

I didnt think about thier diets, there are plenty of variety for them around, and the picture is actually at a golf course I worked at so maybe all those chemicals we put in the water are making them super deer 

[boneaddict]

I think Buttonnubbs is correct.   Probably a difference in their coats. In their "reds", versus their greys.  I see it all the time in alpine muledeer between August and September.  HUGE variability.     You'll also note LOTS of variability of deer, and there might be too extremes here.   

[seth30]

I see it here on whidbey a lot.  I always thought the dark grey deer are older...

[Huntnfolk]

Notellumcreek, you've got it right when you say Pt. Roberts is an interesting place.  I used to go up there every summer when I was a kid to visit relatives.  Used to see some pretty big bucks up there.