Well, at least to me it’s interesting.
I have been watching this doe for since her birth, which happened I am now trying to think, but can’t place it at 3 or 4 years ago.
There was a mulie doe hanging around the neighbourhood pretty much every day for years. She then gave birth to, I thought, two fawns. A few days later I noticed there was a third, but that third always hang out kind of on the side for a while, like it is with them, but kind of not really. In the beginning, I thought that maybe it was “adopted” because the original mother was ran over or whatever happened. Still wonder, but maybe she just had three fawns. Regardless, some time after, all four of them, the mommy and the 3 fawns, were together like normal deer.
As usually, they have been dropping by the neighbourhood on the regular basis and I never paid any special attention to them or studied them in detail. One day, I was driving home and there they were again, about three or four houses down from mine. All of a sudden, the tail went up on one of the fawns as I got close! They never ran and she put down the tail shortly after. Even though I was sure about what I saw, it was getting dark, so I kind of wrote it off. Until she did it again a few days later. She wasn’t a mulie, but not quite a whitetail either. Since then, I have been watching her every chance I got. She has flagged her tail once in while, but stopped completely a few months later. Maybe she did it, but I have never seen her doing it again.
She was hanging out with a bunch of mule deer that would hit the streets every evening. I have never seen a whitetail deer in this part of town (or any part of town, for that matter). Except for her, if that’s what she is. I had a bunch of photos over the years, but my phone crashed last month and the back up ended up being corrupted (Apple store said there is nothing they can do), so all those photos are gone. I am pretty sure I took some with my camera as well, but will have to find those memory cards.
Last fall, I noticed she started sticking out from all the mule deer. If previously she was indistinguishable from the bunch to an average eye unless she showed here behind, last fall she started acting more like a whitetail with her pose, but she still ran more like a mulie.
I haven’t seen her since spring, but a few days ago, I was driving home from the store and there she was on the side of the road, trying to cross in her usual spot. I knew it was her as soon as I saw her and I was happy I did. I was in for a surprise though: there were two fawns with her! This is the first time she became a mom, at three or four years of age (I feel like it’s four, not sure what the hell is going on with my head, lol).
By the way, this is not a thread where I insist I found a hybrid, lol. More like I wanted to share and maybe hear if others experienced this and what people think overall. I know I have pretty good pics of her that I took with my camera and if I find them, I will post here.
Any thoughts on a mule deer “adopting” and “raising” a whitetail deer? If that’s possible, and likely this is what happened with this doe, would it affect its natural behaviour, like flagging the tail, running habits, etc? Sounds very doubtful to me, but it appears that’s what is going on with this particular deer. I am no biologist or deer expert, so lots of wondering on my part, lol.