Deer the Mule Deer and the White-Tailed Deer
Deer are ubiquitous in Colorado – I live in an urban area but I see them a few times a month, most recently in Crown Hill Park – and yet I know very little about them. Perhaps it is the way they quietly inhabit the landscape, their coats particularly blending in during the many months when grasses and trees are brown. Colorado has two types of deer, the Mule Deer and the White-Tailed Deer.
Here's a cool fact about the English word “deer”: in Old English it just meant “animal”. Deer are native to every continent but Australia and Antarctica, with Africa having only a single native deer, the Barbary Stag, which I wanted to highlight just because it’s a fantastic name. How is that not the name of a pub? (By the way, there is also such a thing as a Barbary Sheep, which was introduced to North America and now lives in the southwest!)
You should check out this Wikipedia diagram that is just different deer butts.
The White-Tailed Deer is more commonly found in areas east of Colorado, but does live on the eastern side of the Rockies; the Mule deer lives in the western United States, including all over Colorado. How can you tell the difference if you are in the Front Range? Mule deer are larger, but that one might be tough to gauge unless they are standing next to each other. Mule deer also have black on their tails and their antlers fork outward into branches as they grow, while the White-Tailed deer has a (surprise!) white tail and antlers that grow from a single trunk.
Sadly deer populations are declining throughout the state because of disease, habitat loss, and being hit by cars. The state has tried to mitigate the latter with animal crossings along the highways. There are around 400,000 mule deer in the state, and the USA’s largest mule deer herd – around 105,000 deer – is located in the northwestern part of the state.
If you ever want to know anything about deer, may I recommend the Deer Friendly website, which aggregates deer-related news very nicely. I love this website. It feels like a nice throwback to how the internet used to be, before it was owned by three dumb social media companies monetizing our data. Just somebody making a website about a thing they like and I can visit it without having to log in.
I recommend this video from Colorado Parks and Wildlife about Mule deer.
Finally, I thought this was a really interesting story about the Southern Ute Indian Tribe hosting Pueblos and the Hopi Tribe for cultural Mule deer hunts on their land in southern Colorado because, “Mule deer are culturally important to many Southwestern tribes, who use their parts in different ceremonies and use the meat to feed their communities.”
I initially wanted to do something with my drawing today about the difference in the antlers, but I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I understand the difference. So instead I went with something I think we can all understand.
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