Muley Whitetail Hybrid Cross?

[ERSS]

Any experts out there want to weigh in on this? These deer walked in front of this cam just a few seconds apart, obviously traveling together. Doe is a definite whitetail, the buck.....? Face looks whitetail, ears hard to tell, antlers look muley to me. It is an area where both species definitely overlap, always have both show up on the cam, but usually in distinct groups at different times.

 

[beagle001]

Looks like a whitetail and a muley to me, too.

I am pretty sure I saw a cross last year in SD. Looked like a whitetail buck, except for the tail which was basically a fuzzy muley tail. When he ran, it seemed as though he didn't know whether to run or do the muley hop.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

My guess would be a hybrid, as most straight nontypical whitetails don't even have a rack like that. The only real way to tell is to exam the metatarsal gland on the hind legs and that will be impossible unless you give him a dirt nap this coming season. I've seen one hybrid out in Wyoming and he had ears and a coat of a whitetail, but a crazy bifurcated rack of a mule deer. I never did see his tail the few times we saw him over two years and he was always on private land where I couldn't shoot him or I would have.

 

[Caseknife]

I vote whitetail, mule deer bucks have a bi-colored face, his face looks just like the doe's. Ears are too small for a muley also.

 

[whiskeydog]

I vote whitetail, mule deer bucks have a bi-colored face, his face looks just like the doe's. Ears are too small for a muley also.

whitetail racks don't split like that...

 

[1_pointer]

I vote whitetail, mule deer bucks have a bi-colored face, his face looks just like the doe's. Ears are too small for a muley also.

That would be my guess as well. IMO, antler configuration is way down the list of criteria I'd use to ID a hybrid. They are just too plastic of a characteristic.

 

[Walkathon]

Odd looking rack for a whitetail. Guess you need to shoot it and take it to a biologist to close the case on this one.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Would be nice to see the rest of the body, but the characters that are visible in the pic do look somewhat intermediate.

 

[8andcounting]

Looks to me like a whitetail .

 

[zachthebowhunter]

It would be weird but I think its a muley and has its ears in a weird position to the camera and the doe is a whitetail using the same trail right behind him. Look at how long and wirey his coat is like a mule deer in the summer while hers is nice and sleek like a whitetail typically. Just my observations.

 

[wytex]

White tail rack can have those same split tines, I have one on my wall. The gland is the only way to tell for sure. Crosses do happen in Wyoming, whitetail are much more aggressive and usually the cross is between a whitetail buck and mule deer doe.

 

[Schaaf]

I thought this was going to be about Nate Strong's nice Muley/whitetail cross..