SCHIESS: Muley, White-tailed or hybrid?

Two bucks were following two does through the willows along the bank of a dried-up creek when I noticed the smaller buck had a weird looking tail. As I got closer a mule deer doe and a white-tailed one burst out of the willows and headed for another clump of brush followed by a large white-tailed buck.

Working my way down the dry creek bed I saw the small buck long enough to get a few pictures. The odd tail had a black stripe down the center unlike a mule deer’s that has a complete white one except for the black tip. I also noticed that the antlers were small with the front tines kind of angling forward like it may be the start of a main antler of a white-tail.

As the young buck sneaked through the brush, it kept its head low and moved slow but when it followed the large white-tail buck and tried to move fast the gait was awkward and almost appeared as if it were drunk.

After researching mule/white-tailed crosses, I found many of these things may indicate that the small buck may have been a hybrid, so I contacted Josh Rydalch of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. I also sent him pictures of the animal.

“We assume that hybids between the two species happen in our area, but we have never verified or documented it through genetic testing,” Rydalch said. “It would be expensive to do the testing and then, what do you do with the results?”

Rydalch directed me to several studies that have been done in other states about the crossing of the two species in both captivity and in the wilds. It made for some interesting reading and most listed that crosses will have different tail styles, antlers, ears, behavioral oddities and glands. The two species are usually residents of different habitats, but interact in certain areas. Hybrids, even in captivity, do not live long because of the difficulty of movement because of the muscle structure in the legs.

“The breeding or rutting of the two species are generally different, but the peak of the rutt for each may be only a week apart allowing for some overlapping,” Rydalch said.

One of the studies I read was from Arizona financed by the Boone and Crockett Club’s Conservation Research Grants Program written by Jim Heffelfinger states: “The only practical feature useful to determine if a deer is a hybrid is the appearance of the metatarsal gland, located on the outside of the lower portion of the rear legs.”

This gland on mule deer are near the upper part of the lower leg and is about four to six inches long surrounded by brown fur while that gland on white-tails is near the foot, is very small and surrounded by white hair. Hybrids may have these glands on the mid lower leg and two to four inches in length – or it may run the full length of the lower leg.

Rydalch said the most likely areas to produce a rare hybrid would be around Heise, South Fork of the Snake River, Camas National Wildlife Area, Kilgore or Sand Creek.

In the last two years, I have heard stories of someone killing a “black-tailed” mule deer and another hunter killing a buck with a mule deer antler on one side and a white-tailed antler on the other side. If this happens to you, I would suggest you take the hind legs to the Idaho Fish and Game office and see if you may have bagged one of the “rarest deer” in the United States.