Witness Claims They Just Saw a Rare Black-Tailed Deer in Missouri

If this can be confirmed, it will be interesting discussion as to how this happened. An eyewitness claims they just saw a rare black-tailed deer in Missouri.

I saw this report just shared on the Missouri sub-Reddit a few hours ago. It’s an apparent black-tailed deer near Mansfield, Missouri.

Where can I report a black tail deer sighting
byu/Tarantulas13 inmissouri

That person is correct that Missouri has a site where you can confirm mountain lion sightings and also black bear reports, but nothing for black-tailed deer.

I need to clarify that black-tailed deer are not rare as a species, but they are unheard of in Missouri. As Wikipedia points out you’ll normally only find black-tailed deer “along the Pacific coast from northern and western California and north to southeastern Alaska. East of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Ranges in Oregon and California”.

They are a sub-species of mule deer and there are plenty of those in Missouri, but how a true black-tailed deer ended up wandering around in Missouri is anyone’s guess.

Here’s an interesting twist. Mansfield, Missouri is the famous home of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame. Laura also wrote a famous book called “The Deer in the Wood”.