"What if I shoot the WRONG animal???"
Keep in mind that I was a city girl raised through and through. Until I was introduced to hunting I believed deer lived on golf courses. And with that belief came also the idea that there are only two kinds of deer. The ones with horns, and the ones without.
I made the move out to the country and remained blissfully unaware of the different species of deer for another three or four years. They just looked cute, like Bambi, except in the hayfields around me rather than in a cartoon. There was Daddy deer, Momma Deer, and Baby Deer… Pause for it…. Awwwww.
Then I was introduced to hunting and someone along the way mentioned that I needed tags and draws and a proper gun with proper ammo and suddenly there was all this information swirling around in my brain about poaching and having my vehicle confiscated with all my guns and the animal itself and that’s when that question became an obsession:
“What if I shoot the WRONG animal???"
I won’t lie; my first season I simply prayed that the person beside me wasn’t steering me wrong and I was indeed taking aim at what was written on my tag. I felt a little embarrassed admitting to my ignorance and so my quiet questions were given only vague answers. Look at the antlers (Every damn antler configuration looked the same to me while at the same time they all looked bloody different since no two grew alike), the color of the tail (like I can aim at a deer who has turned on me and started running in the opposite direction to give me full view of his waving flag), and their ears. They ALL have ears. The more frustrated I became with the answers and my ability to not GET it, the more hesitant I became to shoot.
“What if I shoot the WRONG animal???”
Sitting it out and hoping to learn from the guys who dragged the animals in after the kill didn’t help me out. Even having the animal hanging right in front of me STILL didn’t give me enough confidence to be assertive in stating what species of deer it was. If you want to learn the differences, you need to get into the field. I can tell you the basics, but nothing beats field experience. Watching how the deer interact makes all the difference in the world.
In Alberta we hunt two main species of deer commonly referred to as Mule Deer and White Tails. If you saw the deer standing side by side you would probably be able to note the differences that everyone mentions offhandedly. Size, shape, antler growth, coloring, facial construction, and body language. Let’s break it down now.
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Ears
The ears of a mule deer truly look like they’re a little too big, almost as if the deer hasn’t quite grown in to them yet. Many say that the mule deer is named due to its ears being similar to that of a mule/donkey. I prefer to think of a fennec fox. The oversized ears almost give the face a more petite appearance. A white tail’s ears seem to be more proportioned to its head, making the deer almost appear more “elegant”. Often times you can spot a mule’s ears peeking out of the grass before you spot the mulie itself!
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Mule or White Tail
Tails
The Mule deer is also sometimes referred to as a Blacktail Deer. It looks like it’s been dipped in a can of black paint whereas the white tail deer has a white underside. In my experience, the white tail tends to have a bushier tail opposed to mule deer. When a white tail is signaling danger to the rest of the herd, its tail will go straight up and “wag” or wave back and forth. A mule deer also shows more of a white rump opposed to the white tail which tends to be more body colored on the backside.
Antlers
The hardest idea for me to grasp was the differences in antlers when I first started hunting. Mentors kept pointing out to me “main beams” and “points” and yet the configurations all looked the same to me. The proper answer is that in a Mule Deer, the antlers fork off from each other, somewhat like a tree that is trying to grow in as many ways as possible. A white tail on the other hand has one continuous beam going out from his head and all of his points come from that beam reaching up and forward. The brow tines (the antlers that are nearly directly the deer’s eyes going up) on a white tail tend to be longer than on a mule deer as well.
There are other differences that I have read about but have not always found to be reliable. “What if I shoot the WRONG animal???” In general, mule deer are larger and heavier than white tail deer. Contrary to that belief, one of the largest deer I’ve seen for body mass is a white tail doe that resides by my farm. I’ve also had the tiniest mule doe stamp her feet at me in disapproval when I ventured too close to her food plot. Bucks from both species swell in the necks during rut and so give a larger than life appearance. Age and nutrition play a huge role in the growth of any animal. Mule deer also generally have a more grey/brown coat whereas a white tail tends to be in the reddish brown, gold range. In the winter though, white tail deer tend to lighten up quite a bit so color is not a deciding factor.
My favorite tell-tale signs of deer from a distance is movement. Mule deer have a magnificent sproing in their steps as they bounce away from danger. They seem to spring straight up and down from all fours at once. Boing Boing Boing! In contrast white tail has a running gait as if they’re above the whole jumping for joy (or panic) kind of thing.
Both species of deer can provide a challenging stalk and hunt. The best thing to do is pour over endless pictures on websites AND get out in the field to watch the animals in their setting. The greatest part of the hunt is what you learn while you don’t have your gun cocked or your arrow nocked.
The great deer photos featured in this article can be credited to wildlife photographer Bobby Owens.
