A video recently shot in South Dakota of a mule deer and whitetail buck that fought until they fell over in complete exhaustion encapsulates a region-wide conflict between the species.
In the bigger picture, whitetail seem to be winning the war, but at least in northeast Wyoming, mule deer won a battle.
That’s thanks to disease, Wyoming state Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devils Tower, told Cowboy State Daily.
“I have maybe 50 whitetails left on my property, and the mule deer are coming back. They’re a welcome sight. They do way less crop damage,” said Driskill, whose family’s ranch is right next to Devils Tower National Monument.
A recent outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, commonly called blue tongue, hammered whitetail in the region, but didn’t badly affect mule deer, he said.
That could mean that the muley victory will be short lived, Driskill said, because whitetail breed like rabbits.
“Whitetail are like a weed,” he said. “Once they take hold, they have twins and triplets, and they’ll just take over an area.”
Bucks Duke It Out
Driskill has run the family ranch for 50 years, and said he’s watched whitetails and mule deer clash from time to time.
But for bucks of the two species to get into an all-out battle to the finish is rare, he said.
As to why the bucks in South Dakota brawled, it might have been because of a severe shortage of does during the rut or deer mating season, he said.
Generally speaking, mule deer and whitetail stick to their own kind when it comes to mating – and to bucks clashing over who gets access to does.
However, the two species do occasionally cross-breed, producing rare hybrid offspring.
The video, posted online by Buckstorm outdoors media, shows the whitetail and mule deer bucksflopped over on their sides with their antlers locked together. The bucks are completely exhausted from what must have been a prolonged battle.
The bucks were separated, and both limped away, but it’s not known if either of them lived, according to Buckstorm.
In a text message to Cowboy State Daily, a Buckstorm representative said that the video was shot on private property in South Dakota, and the landowners didn’t want to be named.
‘Whitetail Are More Aggressive’
Driskill said that on his property and across the Black Hills in Wyoming and South Dakota, “mule deer and whitetails are in direct competition.”
And overall, whitetail have the edge, he said. Even though whitetails are the smaller of the two species, they’re scrappier.
“Whitetail are more aggressive than mule deer and they tend to habituate toward people a lot better,” he said.
That’s why he worried that the mule deer victory he’s seen in the wake of the blue tongue outbreak won’t last.
Split The Tags?
Northeast Wyoming has some prime mule deer habitat. And rich nutrients in the soil there could produce some monster bucks, Driskill said.
But he thinks the Wyoming Game and Fish’s approach to deer management there isn’t working.
In much of the region, hunters can get a general (over-the-counter) deer tag and kill whichever species they like, he said. And out-of-state hunters in particular like to kill mule deer.
“There’s whitetail hunting opportunity all over the country, but this is one of the few places with mule deer hunting opportunity,” Driskill said, so non-resident hunters relish the chance to get a muley.
Driskill has advocated for splitting the hunting tags for mule deer and whitetails and managing the species separately.
“The whitetail tag should be over-the-counter, and the mule deer tags ought to be draw tags,” he said.
General, or over-the-counter deer tags may be purchased at any time. For limited quota draw tags, hunters must apply months in advance, and not all hunters who put in for tags will draw them.
Driskill backed legislation to split mule deer and whitetail tags during the Legislature’s 2024 session, but that bill failed.
He said he doesn’t plan to introduce a similar bill during the upcoming 2025 session.
But Game and Fish should still consider separate management for the two species, at least in northeast Wyoming, he said.
“If Game and Fish worked on it, northeast Wyoming would really be known for mule deer,” he said. “The mule deer are surging on my ranch. And they’ll only surge as long as whitetail deer are scarce.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
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