Whitetail-Muley cross?

[PolarBear]

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/coues_biology/hybrids.htm

They have a picture of a verified hybrid that I guy killed in AZ.

Hybrids generally look more like whitetail and are almost always the result of a Whitetail buck/Muley Doe cross. Their survival in the wild is very difficult. They usually have a unique awkward gait that is neither whitetail or muley. As a result they rarely mature before being taken by a predator.

I would take their information with a grain of salt though. They say on that site that Blacktail deer are a sub species of Mule deer when Blacktails have been around longer. Infact scientist say mule deer were actually created through a Blacktail-Whitetail mix.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/coues_biology/hybrids.htm

They have a picture of a verified hybrid that I guy killed in AZ.

Hybrids generally look more like whitetail and are almost always the result of a Whitetail buck/Muley Doe cross. Their survival in the wild is very difficult. They usually have a unique awkward gait that is neither whitetail or muley. As a result they rarely mature before being taken by a predator.

I would take their information with a grain of salt though. They say on that site that Blacktail deer are a sub species of Mule deer when Blacktails have been around longer. Infact scientist say mule deer were actually created through a Blacktail-Whitetail mix.

Did you read the whole thing? Why take it with a grain of salt when they do say there are theories that  mule deer were created by a Blacktail-Whitetail cross and then go on to explain what you just did? Additionally there is a chance this article was written around the time that info was coming out....98/99 if I remember correctly. Just reading it that is the way it appears. Kind of hard to state something with the authority if they didn't have the science to prove it at the time. I think it is pretty well written considering the info they probably had.

" This relatively close relationship between whitetail and mule deer and their genetic differences from blacktails has spawned a new theory that the mule deer itself is actually a hybrid form; the result of a mixing of genes from coastal blacktail bucks mating with whitetails does when the glaciers of the last Ice Age receded, bringing the two species together.  The resulting offspring then changed drastically over the last 10,000 years in response to environmental conditions.  This would explain the similarities between whitetail and mule deer mtDNA.  Analysis of the rest of the DNA (nuclear DNA) with Polymerase Chain Reaction-based microsatellites or any of the other rapidly developing techniques will add much to our knowledge of the origin of deer.  "

[grundy53]

sorry didn't realize how old it was. thought it was recent...   i quit reading it after it tried to tell blacktails were a sub-species of muleys....

[DBHAWTHORNE]

sorry didn't realize how old it was. thought it was recent... 

I more or less posted it for the pic of the verified mulie/whitetail cross.. I looked hard and it was the only one I found that had been verified.

[Hangfire]

It takes more than antler shape to identify a cross. You can have white tail with the one set of tines forked and you can see  mule deer with white tail appearing antlers. You have to look at the whole package, head, ears, tail etc.

[DBHAWTHORNE]

It takes more than antler shape to identify a cross. You can have white tail with the one set of tines forked and you can see  mule deer with white tail appearing antlers. You have to look at the whole package, head, ears, tail etc.

A lot of the stuff I read say that even that doesn't give it away. They mentioned that nothing short of genetic testing can  tell often times.