My taxidermist showed me a huge rack last year that came from the Childress area and it looked like a hybrid. I was wondering if anyone ever sees mule deer very much around that area? I'll be doing some hunting up north of Quanah along the river this year and was curious to know.

Thanks!

Hunted up in panhandle since 97 on ranches with both, never seen a cross, it was just a huge wt/ they have no interest in each other have been on ranches with both with them at feeder together muleys chase muley and wt chase wt and no aggression between the two even with hot does there.

I ain't done seen one yet

Friend got a hybrid in Hall county a few years ago.

How do you know it was a hybrid? Did they DNA test it?

I highly doubt they DNA tested it. It had characteristics of both so they assumed it was. They have lived in the area cotton farming since it was first settled and seen about evey deer there. Is it not possible or something?

Killed outside Spur Texas in Dickens county. Game warden himself said it was a hybrid, I don't know,

He didnt write a ticket for it being tagged a whitetail, so worked out good,

Looks more muley than wt to me, but would like to see pics from all angles on that one.

Its the only one I have of him. Its a head scratcher for sure.

Just a little on face the rack and ears say muley, but first one I would even think could be.

I shot one up around northfield a few years back-1/2 the rack was whitetail, 1/2 mulie. Had mulie ears and a whitetail arse. tagged him as whitetail and had no issues...

Dave

I will say it was the best tasting deer meat I've ever eaten. The 308 bullet to his ear was a good choice.

The euro doesnt look pretty though.

looks like a muley to me too.

Got pics ?

Had a whitetail rear end as well. Wish I would have taken more time with the pictures. I didnt really realize these things were so interesting until I started reading this website.

From what I've read, the best way to tell if it is a hybrid is to look at the metatarsal glands on the hind leg. A whitetails are about 3/4" and a muleys are about 4". A hybrid is somewhere in between.

I live in West Texas and we have whitetail and mule deer both. I have seen whitetails bucks chase mule deer does and have seen mule deer chasing whitetail does. I have never seen them breed does of the other species, but I have seen them chasing. In most cases it would be a whitetail buck chasing mule deer does. I have killed a couple of odd looking deer that made me think they were hybrids, but never bothered to have a GW look at them and no, I do not have any pictures. My ex destroyed pretty much of a decade of my deer huntingphoto albums. By the way, she and I were of a different species also, but that is another story for another time.

This is from a paper from TPWD, "Mule Deer Management in Texas."

"Antler characteristics, tail coloration and ear length are not reliable in recognizing hybrids. Hybrids can be identified by the length of the metatarsal gland that is located on the outside of the rear leg between the hock and the hoof. It typically will measure about 3/4 inch long in whitetails and about 4 inches long in mule deer. The metatarsal gland of hybrids is intermediate in length, measuring about 2 inches long. It has been theorized that occurrences of hybridization are initiated by white-tailed bucks, but interbreeding also can occur between mule deer bucks and white-tailed does. Hybrids appear to have at least a limited degree of fertility (Stubblefield 1985)."

I have seen a few hybrids out in west texas, but antler shape or configuration is not reliable as a means of determiniong whether it is a hybrid or not.

The hybrids I have seen, look like sort of a non-perfect composite of the two species, almost like they were photoshopped together, characteristics of both parents not really blended well.

I have seen a rack from a muley that was killed in north western colorado, in an area where there are no white tails within a couple of hundred miles, and it looked exactly like a normal 8 point white tail rack.

This was explained to me by a vet in the deer breeding biz. So here is the summary as I remember it. Not claiming to be an expert just relaying what I remember.
WT/Mulie hybrid is called a terminal cross.
WT and Mulies breed differently.
Mulies herd their does. WTs gotta go one at a time. Makes for an akward courtship.
Mulie bucks are not genetically taught to "chase" their does like a WT doe acts. Flip side WT bucks are not used to herding their harem. (Not saying it could never happen).

If it a cross does occur, youngens dont know how to act as the offspring is half of each, but raised as WT or Muley depending on the doe.
For example if a WT buck breeds Mulie doe. Offspring is half of each. It is raised by Mulie doe. It is taught to act like Mulie. When time comes to breed, it breeds with what it was taught, which is a mule deer. Thereby breeding as a mulie. Then the WT gen is exponentially removed and so on, until the WT genes goe away. That's kwhy it is called a "terminal" cross.

Sorry if its confusing.

Also, there is a high mortality rate in crossed fawns and yearlings.
The fawn is a half breed of WT and Mulies that run totally different. Depending on if they are raised as WT or Mulie, they either run like a WT or stot like a Mulie. The fawns bodies however are designed with the 2 attributes, neither of which is dominant. Therefore the fawn has trouble escaping predators.

Again, this is what was told to me, not saying it is right.
Does seem to make a lot of sense though.

It's rare, but I have seen one, and heard about others. Visited with a biologist in Crowell one day last season about it. By far the most common is a whitetail buck and muley doe.

There are some HUGE does out there south/west of Quanah... the experts out there believe there's some crossing going on...

I don't feel that I would be able to give an accurate answer on this subject, but when we dropped my son's buck off at the deer processor (Raggedy Creek) in Crowell, TX (Foard Co.) the GW and the person at Raggedy Creek's first words were "looks like a hybrid." Their thoughts were that the deer had a larger flat forehead (like a mule) and that his glands were larger than normal (about 2 inches). That was the first I've heard of this. My first thought was this deer looked a little different, but just chalked it up to an odd looking deer. They both seemed as if this wasn't out of the ordinary for the area. In Foard Co. we do have a mule deer season, but one has yet to be seen on the ranch, including 10 cameras. We are in the southern part of Foard Co. with a part of the ranch being in Knox Co., so we really haven't expected to see any mule deer, as we figured they would be in the northern part of Foard Co. I have attached some pics of my sons deer that show some of the characteristics and thought to be a hybrid, by the local experts anyhow. Thoughts?

Looks 100% wt to me

Did to me too! Hybrid never crossed my mind until the GW and Raggedy Creek mentioned it. I notice there was another post about the experts in Crowell believing this was happening. Maybe everyone there is looking for some excitement (you know what I mean if you've been to Crowell, TX) and they are all on a "hybrid" high! Who knows, but like you mentioned earlier, DNA testing would seem to answer a lot of the questions. In my THF expert opinion, I'm thinking this is a hybrid.