Mule deer can be found throughout the entire western United States, including the deserts of the American Southwest, Mule deer have large ears that move constantly and independently, as do mules, hence the name, "Mule Deer." This stocky deer has sturdy legs and is 4 to 6-1/2 feet in length and 3 to 3-1/2 feet high at the shoulder. Most Mule deer are brown or gray in color with a small white rump patch and a small, black-tipped tail. Mule deer their fawns have white spots at birth. Buck deer have antlers that start growth in spring and are shed around December, these antlers are high and branch forward and reach a spread up to 4 feet in width bucks are larger than does. The life span of a mule deer in the wild is 10 years, but mule deer have lived for up to 25 years in captivity.
Mule deer can thrive nearly anyplace; their habitats include woodland chaparral, Sonoran desert, semi-desert, shrub woodland, Great Plains grasslands, shrub land forest, sagebrush steppe, and boreal forest. Mule deer are remarkably adaptable, of at least sixty types of habitat west of the 100th meridian in the United States, all but two or three are or once were home to mule Deer.
Mountain mule deer seasonally migrate from the higher elevations of the sub-alpine forests they inhabit during summer to lower elevations of the mountain valleys and desert lowlands. Deer prefer rocky windswept buttes where it is easier for them to find food during the winter and that provide escape from predators as needed. The mule deer of the arid southwest may migrate in response to rainfall patterns and a mule deers large feet have evolved to enable them to dig for water as much as two feet deep. Mule deer tend to confine their daily movements to their home ranges. Most mule deer use the same winter and summer home ranges in consecutive years-------------------------------> more
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