Scientific Name:  Odocoileus hemionus

Temporal Activity:  Crepuscular; usually feeding in mornings, early evenings, and sometimes on moonlit nights.

Diet:  Mule deer eat mesquite leaves and beans, buckbrush, catclaw, fairyduster, jojoba, and will graze on many forbes and grasses.

Predators:  Coyotes prey upon young.

Breeding:  The breeding season takes place in December and January.  They give live birth to 1-2 fawns 7 months later.  The does will give birth in more rugged terrain in order to avoid coyote predation.  Fawns can run within a few days and stay with their mother for the first year. 

Notes:  The mule deer gets its name form its large mule-like ears.  Bucks grow antlers which are shed in the spring and will grow again in the summer and fall.  They can be found wherever there is enough vegetation for eating and shelter.  They migrate in the before summer and during winter.  Most mule deer will stay within a 1-2 mile home range throughout their lives.

Photo: To be added.

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