Talk:Mule deer

message: It seems that the deer in Baja sur are listed as O. hemionus subspecies.  I have found evidence that thier horns are NOT similar to those of other mule deer , but rather like those of whitetail deer.  Although they do not have `white` tails.  The deer on Isla San  Jose` are rather dark (almost black sometimes) as in the jackrabbits that inhabit the island.  Any information on this would be greatly appreciated   thank you,  sincerely  rexreno@yahoo65.197.130.13 19:30, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  deer in  Baja california sur 

message: I am working on an article about the South Warner Mountain area of California and came across information about forage and hunting of the Rocky Mountain mule deer. I linked to this article, read this article and realized there is no information here on this animal, at least not under this name. Please let me know if there is another name or if the information is just missing and could be added.  Sincerely  Marcia Wright (talk) 09:53, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rocky Mountain mule deer 

message: This article states that the black-tailed deer is not a separate species, but rather a subspecies of the mule deer. However, the wiki article on the black-tailed deer explains that this was once believed to be true but no longer is.  Instead, the black-tailed deer article explains that white-tails evolved into black-tails, then the two species were isolated, then they hybridized to produce mule deer.  I don't know which is correct, but the two articles need to be edited to give a consistent description.
Off2Explore (talk) 14:40, 21 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. Walter Siegmund (talk) 14:59, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

text: Noticed the same thing & agree. Rob Johnson (talk) 7:37, 24 January 2011 (UTC)
replies: text:  I've dealt with it and reverted to treating them as subspecies of a single species, which is the view held by virtually all recent authorities and thereby follows WP:NPOV. Notice also that when they were treated as separate species, the black-tailed deer wasn't monotypic, as it included the Sitka black-tailed deer (I hope this is clearer after my edits, which includes the addition of a taxonomic section both here and in the black-tailed deer article – the latter previously included some very problematic info; see "Section removed" on talk of black-tailed deer for that). 62.107.209.191 (talk) 07:54, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for your work on the article. I think it is very much improved. WP:RECENT and WP:NOT may apply to content based on recent work that is not widely accepted. Best wishes, Walter Siegmund (talk) 20:36, 2 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inconsistent with Wiki article on black-tailed deer 

message: I don't think a cut off image of the head of a taxidermied exceptional individual is representative of the species. I reverted the edit that changed the image. :Image:MuleDeerTrophyBuckOregonRecordBooneandCrockett.jpg may be appropriate in the body of the article. --Walter Siegmund (talk) 15:41, 9 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Taxobox image 

message: I can not make out the difference between the two oranges in the map on the article page, and I can barely do so if I enlarge the map. "Peninsular" gives it away - but maybe someone more capable with image editing programs than me can alter one of the two? HMallison (talk) 08:57, 5 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  distribution map: insufficient diff between colors 

message: Nutrition
Mule deer are ruminants, meaning they employ a nutrient acquisition strategy of fermenting plant material before digesting it. Deer consuming high-fiber, low-starch diets require less food than those consuming high-starch, low-fiber diets.   Rumination time also increases when deer consume high-fiber, low-starch diets which allows for increased nutrient acquisition due to greater length of fermentation.
Because some of the subspecies of mule deer are migratory, they encounter variable habitats and forage quality throughout the year. Forages consumed in the summer are higher in digestible components (i.e. proteins, starches, sugars, and hemicellulose) than those consumed in the winter. The average gross energy content of the consumed forage material is 4.5 kcal/g. Due to fluctuations in forage quality and availability, mule deer fat storage varies throughout the year, with the most fat stored in October, which is depleted throughout the winter to the lowest levels of fat storage in March.  Changes in hormone levels are indications of physiological adjustments to the changes in the habitat.
Total body fat is a measure of the individual’s energy reserves while thyroid hormone concentrations are a metric to determine the deer’s ability to utilize the fat reserves.  Triiodothryionine (T3) hormone is directly involved with basal metabolic rate and thermoregulation.
Rachelsmiley (talk) 12:50, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Physiology 

message: This article needs a section on how tasty Mule Deer are relative to Whitetail Deer.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.67.82.250 (talk) 16:20, 23 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tastiness 

message: Assaulting readers with a list of 100 random plant species really doesn't strike me as helpful. I'm persuadable, but I really don't see the value in the massive list currently in that section. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 17:17, 13 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Diet section 

message: a 2015 paper on the genetics of deer found mule deer to be nestled within whitetail deer. What should be done about the respective articles? It seems like mule deer should rather be Odocoileus virginianus hemionus, which major lumping for traditional whitetail subspecies (essentially just North American and South American common names). It's also worth noting that this article offers genetic relationships for species beyond whitetails, including several brocket species. Those may also be worth exploring and applying to the wiki. --Mjmannella (talk) 00:00, 17 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mule Deer Taxonomy