Odocoileus hemionus (Rafinesque)
Mule deer and black-tailed deer
Description.—The mule and black-tailed deer are among deer of medium to large size. Adult mule deer may weigh up to 400 pounds while some fully adult blacktail bucks may weigh as little as 100 pounds. The body is heavily muscled, the legs long and the tail only about 6 inches in length. The ears are long, from 6 to 8 inches from notch to tip. The head is long and the male has well-developed antlers. The first antlers are almost straight spikes. Those of the second year are bent slightly outward and forward and are equally or subequally forked with the anterior branch usually the stouter. In the third year the anteriolateral curvature is more pronounced and one or both of the forks again fork. In succeeding years forks are larger and more numerous but the essential biramous arrangement of forking is maintained. The "blacktail" and mule deer are strongly marked races. The blacktail differs from the mule deer in: smaller size; darker color, especially on face and tail; tail dark brown above with dark tip rather than whitish with black tip; tail haired beneath, not naked for half its length; antlers smaller and lighter; and skull and teeth smaller.
Mule deer and black-tailed deer range over western North America from southeastern Alaska southward into northern Mexico. They inhabit forested parts of the state of Washington. Blacktails occupy the San Juan Islands, the islands in Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains, the lowlands of western Washington, and the Cascade Mountains. Mule deer occupy the Cascades, including their eastern slope, northeastern and southeastern Washington and parts of the Columbian Plateau. Over this large range there is considerable local geographic variation.
[Jackson] (1944: 1-56) estimated that 109,600 blacktail and 175,725 mule deer live in Washington. Thus Washington is second only to California in number of blacktail and ranks fifth in number of mule deer.
Individual variation over the range of the mule deer is considerable but no trends of variation are distinguishable. Mule deer from the Blue Mountains, northeastern Washington and the eastern Cascades are essentially similar.
There is geographic variation as well as great individual variation in the black-tailed deer of Washington. The deer of the San Juan Islands and the islands of Puget Sound are smaller and darker than those of the mainland and possess smaller, lighter antlers. The deer of Whidby Island are sometimes contemptuously referred to by residents as jackrabbit deer. Fully grown bucks on the Islands weigh in the neighborhood of 100 pounds, rarely exceeding 150 pounds, whereas bucks on the mainland commonly weigh more than 150 pounds dressed.
Fig. 136. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus), subadult male from Okanogan County, Washington, raised in captivity; photographed June 29, 1938, on Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park. (Fish and Wildlife Service photo by Victor B. [Scheffer], No. 99.)