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A friend of mine is a biologist for fish and game. He explained to me that mule deer are closely related to black tail and are not a hybrid. Black tail and white tail hybrids are called bench legs, and are found around the cascade crest on occasion where black tail and white tail ranges overlap.
A friend of mine is a biologist for fish and game. He explained to me that mule deer are closely related to black tail and are not a hybrid. Black tail and white tail hybrids are called bench legs, and are found around the cascade crest on occasion where black tail and white tail ranges overlap. I imagine that they are also found wherever Columbia whitetail can mix with blacktails. One reason he says that hybrids are uncommon is that the flight response for the two deer are different and when they interbreed the offspring generally has a hard time avoiding predators due to them having a screwed up flight response. Some deer "stot" and some run, but they can't try to do both at once and expect to survive.
Quote from: Jdc on October 25, 2012, 05:53:11 PMA friend of mine is a biologist for fish and game. He explained to me that mule deer are closely related to black tail and are not a hybrid. Black tail and white tail hybrids are called bench legs, and are found around the cascade crest on occasion where black tail and white tail ranges overlap. I imagine that they are also found wherever Columbia whitetail can mix with blacktails. One reason he says that hybrids are uncommon is that the flight response for the two deer are different and when they interbreed the offspring generally has a hard time avoiding predators due to them having a screwed up flight response. Some deer "stot" and some run, but they can't try to do both at once and expect to survive.No, you got that mixed up. The deer people call benchlegs are a cross between mule deer and blacktail deer. Not whitetail.
A friend of mine is a biologist for fish and game. He explained to me that mule deer are closely related to black tail and are not a hybrid. Black tail and white tail hybrids are called bench legs, and are found around the cascade crest on occasion where black tail and white tail ranges overlap. I imagine that they are also found wherever Columbia whitetail can mix with blacktails. One reason he says that hybrids are uncommon is that the flight response for the two deer are different and when they interbreed the offspring generally has a hard time avoiding predators due to them having a screwed up flight response. Some deer "stot" and some run, but they can't try to do both at once and expect to survive.[/quoteJdc are you messin with us? Or did you translate what your biologist friend said incorrectly?