Mule Deer

Mule deer take their name from their ears — oversized, mule-like, running about three-quarters the length of the head. They're rugged-country deer, at home in the arid, broken terrain of the West, and easy enough to tell from a whitetail once you know what to look for: a black-tipped tail carried low instead of flagged high, antlers that fork evenly rather than branching off one main beam, and a springy gait called stotting — all four feet leaving and hitting the ground together, bouncing the deer up and over brush as it flees. The coat runs reddish-brown in summer, graying out by winter. Coastal and island populations known as "black-tailed deer" are usually just classified as mule deer subspecies rather than something separate.