Diario de larryhalverson

Late November and early December is time for Mule Deer sparing - A
ritualized contest in which two bucks approach each other, lower heads and
carefully join antlers. Each pushing and twisting their heads trying to
drive his opponent back or push him off balance. Sparring bucks will often
disengage their antlers, lift and turn their heads laterally, as if giving
their opponent a profile view of the head and antlers. It is thought this
"profiling" may allow a buck to assess his opponent’s weaponry and to learn
his own relative size, strength, and status and allowing future dominance
interactions to be resolved visually, without resorting to potentially more
damaging forms of aggression. This match finished after the smaller deer on
the left backed up, turned and moved away, as three does watched near by.

It is not obvious how White-tailed Deer got it’s name until you see them flee. As they run, their tails flip up and flares out, revealing an obvious white flag. It is thought they do this “fagging” to help young fawns follow their moms, startle predators or warn other deer.

PHOTO: The upper side of the White-tailed Deer’s tail is usually the same colour as their body or
 in some individuals like this one a darker brown.

One of the Mule Deer’s most distinct features is its big "mule-like" ears. Each ear rotates independently like a scanning radar.

Without this early warning system, the Mule Deer could not detect as easily the rustle of a cougar slipping up from behind. Although in this case the fawn has his back up against a wall preventing any ambush from behind.


Wildlife numbers are increasing within many British Columbia municipalities, leading to more interactions with humans and our infrastructure. Interactions can lead to property damage, public safety issues, public health concerns, impacts on biodiversity, and death or suffering of wildlife. Deer, elk, coyotes, moose, geese, racoons, bears, and other animals can become more than a nuisance, putting themselves and humans at risk.

PHOTO: In the late summer and early fall deer rub their antlers on shrubs and small trees to remove the velvet covering of dried blood vessels. Antler rubbing continues throughout the fall and intensifies in November as breeding time approaches. Bucks use bush rubbing to leave scent from their forehead glands, which acts as olfactory warning message for other deer. It is also thought that rubbing may act like a mock shoving match to get them ready for sparring matches with other bucks. With this kind of behaviour it is easy to see how a deer could get in tangled with a string of Christmas lights.
Looks like the deer was looking for a plugin

Road killed White-tailed deer near the Simpson Monument in Kootenay
National Park.

With the exception of caribou, females of the deer family do not possess
antlers. So you can imagine the surprise when park warden Harold Abbott
found this White-tailed deer “doe” with antlers. He noted that she must
have had a fawn, as there was still evidence of lactation. But the presence
of small antlers in velvet caused him some bewilderment!

Antlers are formed by short-term increases of growth hormones. Researchers (1)
have found "that female deer can have a testosterone surge caused by a
hormone imbalance, first pregnancy, tumors, or degenerative conditions of
the ovaries or adrenal glands. This single surge can cause the growth of
antlers in velvet. Usually these antlered females cannot produce enough
testosterone to complete the antler cycle; as a result, the antlers remain
soft and often permanent" like the ones on the deer that Harold found.

(1) Field Notes: Antlered Does
Christopher DePerno, DNR Farmland Wildlife Populations & Research Group
and Jonathan Jenks, South Dakota State University

What is unique about the photo is that the one on the left is a hybrid, a cross between a mule deer and a white-tailed deer. It has the ears of the mule deer and the tail shape of a whitetail. Because of the differences in breeding behaviour (white-tailed does generally must be chased by rutting bucks, whereas mule deer does are much less elusive) mating is more likely to occur between mule deer does and white-tailed bucks. The offspring will generally herd and mate with the mule deer so after a few generations the white-tailed deer characteristics will be eliminated.
In the upper Columbia Valley, British Columbia - the mule deer are usually found on the bench lands while the white-tailed deer occupy the valley bottoms.

In the late-1980s, Dr. Valerius Geist, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Calgary, set out to discover why mule deer and whitetails seem incapable of coexisting. His eight-year study revealed that one-way hybridization is the likely culprit. According to Dr. Geist's findings, when whitetail bucks breed mule deer does, the offspring lack the survival instincts of either species and thus are unable to cope in the wild. "Mule deer and whitetail deer have completely different escape strategies," explains Dr. Geist. "A mule deer usually reacts to danger from a great distance, fleeing at the first sign of trouble. When threatened, a mule deer throws obstacles at its pursuer, running uphill or bounding over trees and brush. "A whitetail, on the other hand, usually remains calm, sitting out a threat until the last possible moment, then flushing like a rooster pheasant racing away on a fairly straight line, using speed rather than obstacles to put distance between itself and a predator." Hybrids produced by a whitetail buck and mule deer doe don't demonstrate
either of these escape strategies. In fact, hybrid fawns seem to inherit a fatal blend of survival techniques that turn them into "sitting ducks."

Deer antlers usually grow symmetrical, although occasionally they can be asymmetrical like in this mule deer buck, seen near Radium Hot Springs, BC.

Deformed antlers are often caused by injury to the velvet, as it is the velvet that carries blood vessels that nourish the growing antlers. These antler abnormalities may only last for a year unless the injury occurs near
the base of the growing antler or to the skull, which can result in deformed antlers for life.

It is also well documented ”that skeletal injury to a hind leg will result in the opposite antler being malformed in the next and in subsequent antler growth periods. Injury to a front leg often results in the antler on the same side of the body being malformed.” So it is interesting to see
if these nontypical deer can be recognized in following years.

Mule deer's breeding season is underway. During this period, the bucks have terrific battles in which the antlers are used almost exclusively. Bucks that are evenly matched in size and strength may fight until almost exhausted before one or the other is the victor. It is difficult to say what happened to this buck but he is definitely handicapped when it comes to fighting.

White spots on a brown coat can help fawns blend with shadows and dappled light in the forest,
The spot pattern is random and quite different for each fawn. One researcher found the number of spots, even in twins can vary from 100 to more than 300.

PHOTO: Watched the doe put down her fawn next to a log and then wondered away making herself quite visible.

Chicory is also called Blue Sailors.

On August 20, 2013 a single Chicory plant was found growing at the Kootenay View Point. This exotic plant was introduced from Europe and is now naturalized in North America. It grows in the drier parts of BC in fields, roadsides and waste places. Over the years Chicory has been spreading northward in the Rocky Mountain Trench. They are normally found at lower elevations averaging around 600 meters. So this new sighting at the view point may also be a new elevation record at 1365 meters.Bill Merilees, former Kootenay Park Naturalist and author of Trees, Shrubs & Flowers to Known in British Columbia & Washington, says “the name chicory is familiar to many through the use of it’s deep taproot as a coffee substitute.”