Whitetailed and Mule deer breeding
12-03-2009, 09:44 AM
#11
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: central and east texas
Posts: 4,894
thats a good Q...like donkeys or mules, i dont remember which..i bet its mules...interesting..im sure there hasnt been enough research done yet though lol
12-03-2009, 09:46 AM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: central and east texas
Posts: 4,894
12-03-2009, 11:24 AM
#13
Spike
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 15
again
i dont believe they are sterile, but i do believe they dont tend to survive very well as whitetails and mulies are suited for a very different ways of survival. i believe they also have a VERY hard time escaping preditors due to w/ts tend to use there speed to put as much distance between themselves and the hunter as possible(ive witnessed this WAY too many times) whereas mulies cant think of the word stottle? (bounce) to put objeects between them and the hunter. apparently the hybrids have a very hard time deciding how they are supposed flee so they tend to just bounce around like retards lol kinda funny really
12-04-2009, 05:17 AM
#14
Typical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location:
Posts: 819
I was talking with a river guide in West Virginia, around the New River Gorge, and he told me that in the late 1970s or early 80s, the over hunting had brought the average weight of the whitetails way down, so officials brought in Mulie does and let them loose to mingle with the whitetails. After only a few years, the average weights of harvested deer in the area were way up. Now he might have been putting me on, but he really seemed ernest. I might need to go check out what I can find online.
Over hunting doesn't bring the average weight of whitetails down, as there is more food for each deer. Underhunting or over population typically brings the average weight down as there are less quality foods for each animal. What he probbaly saw was the few years it takes for the average weights to increase again from the reduction in herd size.
While there are instances of whitetails and mulies breeding, typically their breeding seasons dont overlap enough to cause anylarge incidence of this. I would think the whitetail bucks would be more persistent in chasing mulie does, when he did indeed find a M/D in heat. If given the choice between a W/T doe and a mulie doe, I would suspect they would typically choose the W/T doe.
12-04-2009, 05:39 AM
#15
Spike
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Virginia
Posts: 26
My understanding from this guy was that people had killed about every deer they could, combined with the effects of extensive coal mining, had left a small and underfed herd. As the mining ceased and the reforestation began, an effort was made to improve herd size and individual deer size. He coulda been bull****ting me, but again, I dont think he had any reason to.
