Colorado Mule Deer 001708

by Renny Spencer

Title

Colorado Mule Deer 001708

Artist

Renny Spencer

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

A mule deer buck pops out of the trees in the Rocky Mountains near Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. I had glimpsed a mule deer in the thick brush but as I started to make my way to get a photograph I spotted some bighorn sheep up on a mountain ridge. With my focus on getting set up to capture them, I forgot about the mule deer that had started this adventure. So I hear movement near me and out of the trees and brush this buck steps out. I quickly lower my camera and captured this buck before he moved away into the thicket. His antlers are still in velvet but not for much longer as antlers will finish hardening and the velvet will fall or be scraped away.

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Mule-Deer

"Mule deer’s defining characteristic are their large ears, which are about three-fourths the length of the head. They have a distinctive black forehead, or mask, that contrasts with a light gray face. In the summer, mule deer are tannish-brown and in the winter are brownish-gray in color. They have a white rump patch and a small white tail with a black tip. When running, they bound in a motion called “stotting,” in which all four hooves push off the ground at the same time.
Black-tailed deer are a subspecies of mule deer found in the Northwest and, as their name suggests, have black tails instead of white. White-tailed deer are a different species but overlap in range with the mule deer in some places. Mule deer are slightly larger, have bigger ears, smaller tails, and have a forked antler structure rather than having points that grow from a central branch. The easiest way to differentiate the species is to look at the tail. Only the underside of the white-tailed deer’s tail is white, while the mule deer’s tail is all-white with a black tip and is much smaller. In addition, mule deer do not flash their tails in alarm.

Mule deer range from 3 to 3.5 feet (0.9 to 1 meter) tall at the shoulder, 4.5 to 7 feet (1.4 to 2.1 meters) long, and have a tail that is five to eight inches (13 to 20 centimeters) long. They can weigh between 130 and 280 pounds (59 and 127 kilograms). The female deer are smaller than the male."

---Renny Spencer
https://rennyspencerphotography.com

Uploaded

October 18th, 2021

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