Whitetail in Mule Deer Country at 7200 feet

[muleracks]

Weird to see a young buck at Ice Lakes in Chelan County this week.  Mule deer spend the summer up there but whitetail typically stay in the lower valley; mostly north of Lake Chelan.  June 28, 2017

[muleracks]

Another photo.

[huntnnw]

May be a whitetail , but it identifies as a mule deer therefore it's a Muley 

We see lots of whitetails in ID up to 7,000 and we hunt whiteys up to 5,500 in NE WA

[muleracks]

Yep, if he identifies as a muley we shouldn't kick him out our mule deer country.

[greenhead_killer]

Nice pics!

[NOCK NOCK]

Seeing more and more Whiteys in central wa mule country every year. 
Cool pics

[boneaddict]

Ive killed two of my nicest whitetails in Muley country.  I couldn't pass them up.   Not at 7200 though.   Fantastic shots

[milldozer]

Nice shots.  About what elevation is snow line in that area?

[DOUBLELUNG]

My first year in Wyoming as a poor nonresident college student, I was hunting blue grouse at 10,000 feet at timberline during the October deer season.  I came around the top of a riparian stringer and jumped a huge whitetail out of his bed.  The river bottom at the base of these mountains always has whitetails, but I was 2,000' above the river and never saw another whitetail up high like that.  Pretty sure he was just waiting out hunting season. 

In Chelan County I often see young whitetail bucks in funny places during the rut, definitely unusual to see this one there in summer.  Thanks for sharing, great pics!

[huntnphool]

 I ran into a few at about 8000 in the Bitterroots, West of Darby several years ago.

[Doublelunger]

Seems that whitetail are the more dominant species. I see more and more whitetail all over the higher elevations in NE WA where ten years ago I would only see mulies. 

[muleracks]

We took our first whitetail out of Benson Creek in Okanogan County in 1961; the invasion has continued and now they are even in Chelan County south of Lake Chelan.  My son took a one above the town of Entiat in 94.  Not fond of the species because they spend all summer eating what the migratory mule deer need for winter browse and they are more dominant; watch them at the haystacks in the Methow chase off the timid muley.  We have never before seen any in the Glacier Peak Wilderness and this one is at over 7200 feet in the June snow field.

[crabcreekhunter]

Should be considered an invasive species in chelan county and be exterminated, the mule deer numbers will suffer immensely if they continue getting a stronger foothold.

[Opportunist]

I think the most out of place animal I've seen was in Idaho at 9,500  feet, a really nice antelope buck up in the boulder mountains.

[OutHouse]

This issue is always on my mind. Where I hunt, it's a mixed unit and over the last 15 years the whitetail have exploded. Mule deer correspondingly declined. Makes me wonder if mule deer have a lasting future in WA given the apparent adaptability of whitetails at these elevations. With regard to dominance, I remain undecided. I've seen mules shy away from whites, but I've also seen a single mule deer buck completely intimidate a whole group of whitetail bucks with chasing and what looked like biting though I cannot be sure given the distance. I'm starting to think they should open up a one day season in certain units and allow a second harvest. Does anyone else think there is a long term sustainability issue with the expansion of white tail territory?