HuntingNet.com Forums - 30 different sub-species of whitetail?

It is time to straighten this out.

There are five deer species in North America; Moose (Alces alces), Elk (Cervus elaphus), Caribou (Rangifer tarandus), Mule Deer (Odocolieus hemionus) White-Tailed Deer (Odocolicues virginianus). Scientists always use Latin names when referring to pland and animal species, because these Latin names are universal; a scientist in China or Brazil or MA knows that Odocolieus vriginianus refers to a White-Tailed Deer. The first name is the genus name, the second name is the species, and a third name refers to the subspecies. These scienttific names should be written in italics, for obvious reasons I won't do it below.

Many or the former subspecies of deer have now been lumped together. And some new species have been designated. Here are the latest classifications I have come across.

The boundaries between subspecies are often mountain ranges or river drainiages, and the distribution of these subspecies often overlap.

This is from my book on Whitetails.

There are 30 recognized subspecies of whitetails occurring in North, Central and South America, with 17 subspecies in the United States. Five of these subspecies are limited populations on islands off the southeastern coastal regions of North America. Whitetails inhabit all of the lower 48 states; with limited populations in Nevada, Utah and California. They also inhabit all of the Canadian Provinces except the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. They inhabit all of Central America, with the exception of the Baja Peninsula. They also inhabit the northern areas of South America.

The whitetails of North America range in size from the large Northern woodland (O. v. borealis), Dakota (O. v. dakotensis), Northwest (O. v. ochrorus) subspecies of the northern states and Canada; to the small Florida Key (O. v. clavium) of the Florida Keys, Carmen Mountains or Fantail (O. v. carmenis) and the Coues (O. v. couesi) subspecies of Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. The Columbian (O. v. leucurus) of Washington, and the Key (O. v. clavium) subspecies were both on the Endangered Species List in 1989. The largest whitetail ever recorded was shot in 1926 by Carl J. Lenander in Minnesota. It weighed 402 pounds field dressed, with an estimated live weight of 511 pounds. Several deer with live weights estimated in excess of 400 pounds have come from Iowa, Georgia, Maine, Minnesota Wisconsin .

Subspecie Distribution
The Northern woodland whitetail (O. v. borealis) inhabits the areas from the eastern shore of North America to the Mississippi River and the eastern half of Minnesota, from south of Hudson Bay to northern Virginia and northern Tennessee. The Dakota whitetail (O. v. dakotensis) inhabits western Minnesota, southern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to the Continental Divide, down to northern Colorado. The Northwest whitetail (O. v. ochrorous) inhabits southern British Columbia, western Montana, Idaho and areas of Washington and Oregon east of the Cascade Mountains. The Columbian whitetail (O. v. leucurus) inhabits the area west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and northern Oregon. The Virginia whitetail (O. v. virginianus) inhabits the areas of northern Virginia south of the Ohio River west to the Mississippi River, and south to Mississippi and the northern portion of the Florida Panhandle. The Florida coastal whitetail (O. v. osceola) inhabits the areas south of this range to the Gulf Of Mexico to eastern Florida. The Florida whitetail (O. v. seminolus)inhabits the eastern portions of Florida. The Florida Key (O. v. clavium) deer inhabits the keys off the western coast of Florida. The Kansas whitetail (O. v. macrorus) inhabits the area west of the Mississippi from south of the Minnesota River to the Missouri River along the Missouri/Arkansas/Louisiana state lines, to southern Louisiana. The Avery Island whitetail (O. v. mcilhennyi) inhabits the coastal areas of Louisiana and Texas to Galveston Bay. The Texas whitetail (O. v. texanus) inhabits areas of northern Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska, north to the Niobrara River in Nebraska and west to the Rocky Mountain foothills. The Carmen Mountains (O. v. carminis) whitetail inhabits the area of Big Bend National Forest in Texas and north central Mexico. The Coues, pronounced cows, whitetail (O. v. couesi) inhabits southern New Mexico and Arizona, west of the Continental Divide to the Gulf of California east of the Rio Grande River. The Bull’s Island whitetail (O. v. taurinsulae), the Hunting Island whitetail (O. v. venatorius), the Hilton Head Island whitetail (O. v. hiltonensis) and the Blackbeard Island whitetails (O. v. nigribarbis) inhabit the Islands of those names off the Georgia coast.

Here in Minnesota we have the Kansas whitetail (apporximately) south of the MN River and west the MS river, the Dakota whitetail (approx) west of the MS river and north of the MN river, and the Northern Woodland Whitetail (apporx) east of the MS river.

This is from my book on hunting Western and northern big game.

Mule Deer

Subspecies
Mule Deer in North America are divided into ten subspecies. Rocky Mountain mule deer (O. h. hemionus) inhabits the western portions of North and South Dakota and Nebraska, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, southwest Saskatchewan, southern Alberta, and southern British Columbia. Desert mule deer (O. h. crooki) occur in western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico. The California mule deer (O. h. californicus) inhabits southern California except the southwest. The Southern mule deer (O. h. fulginatus) inhabits the upper Baja Peninsula and southwest California. The Sierra Mountains mule deer (O. h. inyoensis) inhabits the eastern slope of the southern Sierra Mountains. The Peninsula mule deer (O. h. peninsulae) inhabits southern Baja Peninsula. The Tiburon Island mule deer (O. h. sheldoni) inhabits Tiburon Island off the western coast of Sonora, Mexico. The Cedros Island mule deer (O. h. cerrosensis) inhabits Cedros Island off the western coast of Baja California. The last two deer are not hunted. The Cedros Island Mule Deer is on the endangered species list.

Black-tailed deer are considered a subspecies of the Mule Deer. The Black-tailed deer (O. h. columbianus) inhabits the Coast Range and Cascade Range of Washington and Oregon. The Sitka Black-tailed deer (O. h. sitkensis) inhabits the coastal regions of British Columbia and Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Moose

There may be as many as eight subspecies of moose (Alces alces) found in the coniferous forests of Europe, Asia and North America. The moose of North America are generally divided into three, and sometimes four subspecies. They may reach heights of 7 1/2 feet at the shoulder. They usually rut in late September and early October.

Subspecies
The Shiras moose (A. a. shirasi) may weigh up to 1000 pounds with antler spreads of about four feet inhabits the Rocky Mountains in northeast Utah; extreme northwest Colorado; western Wyoming; western Montana. The Eastern moose (A. a. americana) may weigh 1200 pounds with antler spreads from 4 to 5 1/2 feet inhabits eastern and northern Idaho; eastern Washington; northern Saskatchewan; western and northern Alberta; eastern British Columbia; northern Minnesota; northeastern North Dakota; Ontario; southern and western Quebec; Labrador; Newfoundland; northern New England states. The Northwestern moose (A. a. andersoni) inhabits northern British Columbia; and the western Northwest Territories. Some authorities consider the Northwest and Eastern moose the same subspecies often called the Canada moose. The Alaska moose (A. a. gigas), occurs in Alaska and Yukon, may weigh 1500 pounds with antler spreads up to 6 feet. The Europeam moose is known as (A. alces machlis).

Caribou

Subspecies
In Europe, caribou are called reindeer, but in Alaska and Canada only the domestic forms are called reindeer. All caribou and reindeer throughout the world are considered to be the same species, but there are several subspecies: those in Europe and Asia include the European caribou (R.t. tarandus), Finnish forest reindeer (R.t. fennicus). There is also the Greenland caribou (R. t. eogroenlandicus or groenlandicus depending on curent status).

Many scientists and most hunters recognize seven subspecies of Caribou in North America. Central Canadian Barren Ground (R. t. groenlandicus) caribou inhabit the Northwest Territories and northern portions of the prairie provinces. Alaskan Barren Ground Caribou (R. t. granti) occur in the northern Yukon and Alaska. Some experts consider the Quebec Labrador caribou of Quebec and Labrador, the Woodland caribou of eastern Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and New Foundland, and the Mountain caribou of the British Columbia Mountains to be one subspecies (R. t. caribou). Peary's caribou (R. t. pearyi) inhabit Ellesmer Island and other nearby islands of the northern Canada. The Queen Charlotte Island caribou (R. t. dawsoni) is extinct.

In many portions of their range these species overlap and interbreed, and exceptional animals occur due to hybrid vigor, which causes the offspring of two different subspecies to grow larger than either parent. Even without hybrid vigor bull caribou grow tremendous antlers. Alaskan Barren Ground bulls have been scored as high as 460 points, with spreads approaching forty-eight inches. In 1984 an archer took a bull with double shovels and forty-eight tines that scored 449. Mountain Caribou have been known to have spreads of fifty-seven inches and score as high as 460.

This is from my elk book.

Elk, like moose and caribou, are an Old World deer species that originated in Eurasia and spread to North America, crossing the Bering Land Bridge during the ice age. North American elk were once considered a separate species, and the Eurasian red deer another species. Scientists now know that elk are a subspecies of the Eurasian red deer. The Red Deer family includes about 27 subspecies, including some on the endangered species list: the Bactrian deer (C. e. bactrianus), Barbary deer (C. e. barbarus), Corsican red deer (C. e. corsicanus), Asiatic hangul or Kashmir deer (C. e. hanglu), Izubr stag or Isyubra deer/Manchurian red deer (C. e. xanthopygos), McNeill's red deer or Szechuan red deer (C. e. macneilli), Shou (C. e. affims) and Yarkand deer (C. e. yarkandanseis ). Some of the other subspecies of Red Deer are the Alshansk or Ala-Shan red deer (C. e. alshanicus), Altai red deer (C. e. asiaticus or sibiricus), Balkan red deer (C. e. hippelaphus), Corsican red deer (C. e, corsicanus), (Kansu red deer (C. e. kansuensis), Maral (C. e. sibiricus), Norwegian red deer (C. .e. atlanticus), Scottsih red deer (C. e. scoticus), Shingielt red deer (C. e. wachei), Spanish red deer (C. e. hispanicus), Swedish red deer (C. e. elaphus), Tien-Shan red deer (C. e songaricus) and Wallich's deer (C. e. Wallichii).

There were originally six subspecies of elk in North America with an estimated population of about 10 million; the Rocky Mountain or Yellowstone elk (C. e. nelsoni), Manitoba elk (C. e. manatobensis), Olympic or Roosevelt elk (C. e. roosevelti) and the Tule elk (C. e. nannodes) still survive. The Eastern elk (C. e. canadensis) and the Merriam's elk (C. e. merriami) are considered extinct.

So Sika deer and Fallow deer are not related to elk or whitetails. The Red Stag is the same as the Red deer, which is the same as an elk.

If y9ou have more queestions on this come on over to the "T.R.'t Tips" board.