Deer with an ear tag

[samdubs1]

 I was out scouting this morning and came across a deer standing in the road with an off yellow or lime green tag in its ear. I was a bit away from it and glassed it with my binocs because I thought I saw something weird on its head. Sure enough it was tagged. I drove closer and the deer took off up the road flashing a white tail like whiteys do. The deer had the summer coat and had white tail features but when it went up the mountain it bounced like a muley. I am located in Whatcom county and did not think a whitey was up this far. I know the Columbia is down at the other end of the state. I grew up hunting whiteys and last year was my first after blacktail. I looked up the pics of the ear tags on deer and the columbia whitetail deer and it it looks like the tag that they use for them but the color was off yellow more. It looks more like the ones they tagged on a mule deer on the east side of the cascades. Any else ever run across this?

[AL WORRELLS KID]

samdubs1, My deer has not only beautiful Earrings but wears an Expensive Necklace. (Looks like she's proud of her 20/20 eyesight too.) 
Doug

https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/article-index/young-hunters-first-deer-confusing-due-collar-tags-circumstances

[Onewhohikes]

Blacktail

[samdubs1]

samdubs1, My deer has not only beautiful Earrings but wears an Expensive Necklace. (Looks like she's proud of her 20/20 eyesight too.) 
Doug

https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/article-index/young-hunters-first-deer-confusing-due-collar-tags-circumstances

   Everything but the collar was on this deer. Hopefully i catch it on one of my cams so i can get a very good closeup of the deer. When i run across the warden again in my hunting area I will ask him if he knows of tagged deer in the area.

[PA BEN]

This is a first for me, ear tag and collar.

[samdubs1]

The below message is what I got back from the local biologist office:

These deer would absolutely be huntable during the open season.  Our biologist is unaware of the tagged deer, so they would not be from any type of research project or anything.  Most likely the ear tags are a sign they were chemically immobilized at some point, but whether or not they are local or just made their way there from another area would be impossible for us to even guess without the numbers on their ear tags.  If harvested, those ear tags have a phone number on them with a tag number and instructions to call before consumption.  It is a safety measure to make sure a hunter can safely consume the animal, as it takes about 30 days for the drugs to completely leave the animals system and be safe for consumption.  Hope this helps.