Quote:
Originally Posted by Dubious
"The best feature to determine if a deer is a hybrid is the size of the metatarsal gland, which is located on the outside of the lower portion of the rear legs. This should not be confused with the tarsal glands on the inside of the legs. The metatarsals on mule deer sit high on the lower leg and are 3 to 6 inches long and surrounded by light brown fur. The whitetail’s metatarsals are at or below the mid-point of the lower leg, usually less than 1 inch, and surrounded by white hairs. A whitetail-mule deer hybrid has metatarsal glands that split the difference, usually measuring between 2-4 inches and encircled with white hair.
Biologists have documented the presence of hybrids in the wild on only a few occasions. The relative scarcity of confirmed hybrids among the hundreds of thousands of deer that have been seen throughout the area of range overlap illustrates how rare they are. Every year numerous reports are received of “hybrid” deer from hunters. Arizona researcher, Gerald Day (who produced captive hybrids) investigated over 200 reports of “hybrids” and did not find a single legitimate whitetail-mule deer hybrid. Most of these hybrid reports come from hunters who have a whitetail tag on the leg of a mule deer and are trying to convince the Game Warden that they are at least half right."
ref: https://www.coueswhitetail.com/tails...-deer-hybrids/
that deer look to me as 100% normal whitetail. |
THE ABOVE MENTIONED IS THE ONLY reliable way to physically determine if your deer is a hybrid. Short of a DNA test - that's all and that's it.
Hybridisation is extremely rare as fertilisation rates are extremely low, followed by even lower rates of offspring carried to term, and coupled with significantly high rates of mutation for offspring that do make it to term resulting in extremely low rates of surviving offspring reaching maturity.
You are talking about lighting striking 3 times in a row, hitting the same tree, in the same field on the same day kinda thing (based on what I've read).