The most
numerous, widespread and popular of Arizona's
big-game animals are deer. The state has
two distinct species, the mule deer (Odocoileus
hemionus) and the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus
virginianus).
The most abundant deer in Arizona is the Rocky Mountain mule deer. Mule
deer are not limited to any one type of terrain, being found from sparse,
low deserts to high forested mountains. Generally they prefer the more
rugged country.
Life History
The mule deer gets its name from its large ears. Coat color is reddish-brown
in summer, turning to a blue-gray in winter. Its forehead is much darker
than its face, while its throat, belly and inner leg surfaces are white.
Mule deer have white rump patches and short, narrow, black-tipped white
tails.
The mule deer is the larger of Arizona's deer. Adult bucks may weigh in
excess of 200 pounds and stand up to 42 inches at the shoulder. Does average
125 pounds.
Typical mule deer antler configuration has each side branching equally
into two main beams, each may fork into two tines. The size and number
of 'points' is dependent on a combination of age, nutrition, and genetic
background. The antlers grow under a layer of skin called velvet. The velvet
supplies blood to the growing antlers, which are soft. When fully grown,
the antlers harden, the velvet dries, and is rubbed off. Antlers are composed
of material similar to that of bone. Each year in the spring, after the
breeding season has passed, antlers are shed. It is in preparation for
the rut that mule deer grow antlers. Bucks are polygamous and fight for
a harem of does during the winter breeding season.
After a gestation period of about 190 days, the does give birth to spotted
fawns, often twins. Fawns are 'dropped' about mid-summer. At higher elevations
the fawns are born early after the last spring storms to allow the young
to grow large enough to withstand the winter storms. At lower, drier elevations,
drop time is synchronized more with summer rains that bring on new plant
growth. A fawn's spots will disappear in about two months and the young
will stay with their mother until the following spring. They will become
sexually mature in a year and a half. In the wild deer have a life span
of about ten years.
Hunt History
As befits Arizona's principal game animal, deer received some protection
as early as 1887 when a four-month season of October 1 through January
31 was established by the territorial legislature. Buck-only hunting was
instituted in 1893, and the season was gradually reduced until 1913 when
the new state legislature authorized a two-month season and a two-buck
bag limit. Even this was deemed excessive by the state's sportsmen, and
a public initiative in 1916 reduced the limit to one buck deer to be taken
during the month of October.
Despite a serious overpopulation of deer on the North Kaibab in the 1920s,
deer numbers appeared to decline in the rest of the state. In 1929, the
mule deer season was closed south of the Gila River, and even as recently
as 1946, fewer than 5,000 mule deer (more than 80 percent of all deer killed)
were harvested in Arizona. Then, for reasons that are still unclear, deer
populations began to increase. As the populations rose, doe and "any-deer" hunts
were authorized. In 1961, an all-time high of 91,120 deer hunters took
35,897 deer. More than 86 percent of these were mule deer and nearly 10,000
were antlerless animals. Archery deer hunting was also now beginning to
provide a significant hunting opportunity.
A series of years of poor fawn survival followed. By 1970 fewer than 16,000
deer were taken, and hunt success had fallen to 16 percent. With the institution
of permit-only deer hunting the following year, hunter numbers dropped
from more than 97,000 to fewer than 68,000. Only about 9,500 mule deer
were reported harvested.
Deer permit numbers gradually increased after 1972, leveling off at around
70,000 per year between 1976 and 1982, when hunters took more than 12,000
mule deer, approximately 75 percent of the total deer harvest. Then, a
series of wet winters resulted in an increase in fawn survival rates, and
hunter numbers and the numbers of deer bagged increased accordingly until
1986, when nearly 86,000 hunters took 25,566 deer, of which 77 percent
were mule deer.
Since then, another series of droughts has occurred, and deer hunting opportunity
is again being curtailed. In 1998, 44,524 hunters reported taking fewer
than 10,500 deer. Of the total deer harvested that year only 60 percent
were mule deer. Prospects in the near future are even more discouraging,
but mule deer are "boom and bust" animals. With the advent of better than
average winter rains, mule deer populations will once again improve. The
only question is when.
Behavior
Deer feed on grasses and forbs in the spring and summer, however, they
are primarily browsers. They eat such items as twigs, bark, buds, leaves,
and nuts. Important plants in a mule deer's diet include mountain-mahogany,
buckbrush, cliffrose, sagebrush, buckthorn, juniper, and oak. Most feeding
is done at dawn and dusk, although human activity may cause a shift to
more feeding at night. In Arizona, predation on deer is mainly by coyotes,
bobcats, and mountain lions.
Summary
Breeding
Period: November-December
Young
Appear: June-August
Average
Number of Young: 2
Distribution: 90ft-10K
ft, statewide except
extreme southwest corner
of state
Habitat: Desert
shrub, grasslands, pinon-juniper,
pine, aspen-fir, and
mountain meadows
Food
Preference: Weeds,
palo verde, aspen,
mushrooms, yucca flowers,
shrubs, oak, mesquite
beans, janusia, cliffrose,
sagebrush, juniper,
coffeeberry, cacti
fruit, and filaree
in season
Habitat
