Eunoia
UNLESS SOMEONE LIKE YOU CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT, NOTHING IS GOING TO GET BETTER IT'S NOT - Dr. Seuss
Mule Deer
Yellow listed species
Human Health Hazard
Conservation Status
Syilx
Description
Mule Deer are relatively large animals – 90 to 95 cm high at the shoulder. Adult males, or bucks, weigh 68 to 113 kg, but bucks in peak physical condition may weigh up to 180 kg. Females, or does, weigh 50 to 75 kg. Mule Deer have a reddish brown coat that changes from tawny brown in summer to dark or grizzled brown in winter. They have a dark brown forehead, a whitish face with a black muzzle, and a white throat patch. Their ears are large – about two-thirds the length of the head – with black borders and white hair on the inside, and they have a large white rump patch with a narrow blacktipped tail. Each year male Mule Deer grow and shed a set of antlers. Their antlers have two main beams, each of which forks again into two beams (dichotomous branching). Blacktails are smaller than Mule Deer and slightly darker in color, with a small rump patch and a tail that is dark brown or black for most of its length, rather than just at the tip. Adult males in good condition weigh about 48 to 90 kg, females 40 to 65 kg. Sitka blacktails tend to be smaller and darker than Columbia blacktails. The number of antler points is not a reliable way to determine the age of these deer, but in general, yearling blacktails almost always have unbranched spikes. Two-year-olds mostly have small two-point antlers, but they may also have spikes. Bucks three-years-old and older may have two, three, or four points on each antler. In Mule Deer, most yearlings have two points on each side, and two-year-olds grow large forks or three points. Older bucks have four, five, or more points and a small tine or eye-guard near the base of the antlers.
Habitat
Old-growth forests form a key part of the winter range for coastal Black-tailed Deer in British Columbia and are critical for their survival. They provide shelter, intercept snow so that it is shallower, and provide forage in the form of broken branches and the lichens that grow on them. On the southeast coast of Vancouver Island and the islands in Georgia Strait, old-growth cover is not critical because snowfall is usually shallow and brief. But northward and at higher elevations, it becomes increasingly important. Here, steep, south- to west-facing sites provide the best winter range.
In the interior, the Mule Deer’s traditional winter ranges consist of shrublands in the dry forest zone and on steep south- and west-facing sites with broken terrain. They often remain at high elevations until December, then migrate to lower ranges with shallower snow. In summer, they usually leave the dry, valley-side ranges and move to moister, higher elevations.
Food
In winter and early spring, coastal Black-tailed Deer feed on Douglas-fir, western red cedar, red huckleberry, salal, deer fern, and lichens that grow on trees. From late spring to fall, they eat a much wider variety of plants, including grasses, trailing blackberry, fireweed, pearly everlasting, and many other herbaceous plants (forbs), as well as the leaves of willows, salmonberry, salal, maple, and other shrubs or trees. The Mule Deer's key winter foods include shrubs like big sagebrush, pasture sage, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush, snowbrush, saskatoon, rose, and serviceberry, as well as the foliage of Douglas-fir trees and a variety of grasses and herbs. In spring and summer, Mule Deer prefer various grasses, along with herbs like balsamroot, clover, wild strawberry, fireweed, and the leaves of many kinds of shrubs.
Social System, Activity & Movements
During most of the year Black-tailed and Mule deer travel alone or in small groups, but Mule Deer sometimes form larger groups. The social system consists of clans of females that are related to each other by maternal descent and bucks that are not related. Bucks assert their dominance by taking various threat postures and flailing their front hooves. Also, bucks of unequal size, particularly yearlings and two-year-olds, often engage in protracted sparring matches during which they push their antlers together and twist their heads. These engagements are not fights and actually result in social bonding.
Deer communicate with the aid of scents or pheromones that come from several glands. The most important are the metatarsal (outside of lower leg), tarsal (inside of hock), and interdigital (between the toes). The metatarsal gland produces an alarm scent, the tarsal serves for mutual recognition, and the interdigital glands leave a scent trail when deer travel.
"Mule and Black-tailed deer have difficulty moving through snow deeper than 30 cm, so they cannot survive in British Columbia’s extensive alpine and subalpine zones in winter. In summer, most deer migrate to higher elevations to take advantage of nutritious new growth, but some remain at low elevations all year.
Most British Columbia residents are used to seeing Mule and Black-tailed deer in rural subdivisions, along highways, and in parks. These casual contacts have considerable intangible value, and large groups of Mule Deer on winter-spring ranges are a spectacular sight. The best time for viewing Mule Deer is April, when they move to low-elevation, south-facing grassy slopes in search of the first hints of green vegetation. These locations include slopes along the Fraser River between Lillooet and Williams Lake, the Dewdrop Range near Kamloops, the Gilpin Range between Grand Forks and Christina Lake, and Premier Ridge and other sites along the southern Rocky Mountain Trench.
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Reproduction & Parental Care
After a gestation period of six to seven months, fawns are born from late-May through June. At this time, the does drive away their offspring of the previous year and seek a secluded place to give birth. The white-spotted fawn relies on its colouration, lack of scent, and silence for protection. Does leave fawns hidden while they forage in the vicinity, returning occasionally to nurse them. Twin fawns are the rule, though young does often have only one, and triplets occur once in a while. At birth, fawns weigh 2.7 to 4 kg. Typically, does produce offspring throughout life, and more than 90 percent of them give birth every year.
Natural Mortality & Predators
This is a prolific species which can double its population in a few years under favourable conditions. Normally, 45 to 70 percent of the fawns die, and few Black-tailed and Mule deer live more than eight to ten years. Predation, starvation, and hunting are the main causes of death.
Mule and Black-tailed deer are vital components of their ecosystems and provide food for several predators. The Cougar depends on both species for its survival in British Columbia. Wolf populations in several areas, including Vancouver Island, also rely heavily on deer. Bears, Bobcats, and Coyotes supplement their diets by killing deer when the opportunity arises or by scavenging on carcasses left by Cougars or wolves. Other scavengers include Wolverines, Ravens, and Magpies. For the most part, Mule and Black-tailed deer live amicably with a number of parasites and disease organisms. These kill deer only when the deer are starving. Epidemic diseases have not caused large die-offs in deer in British Columbia.
Credit
BC Ministry of Environment
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/muledeer.pdf