"Tail Color" Does anyone know?

[COOSEFAN]

I have a question regarding top side tail color on Coues. I have a grandfather who grew up in Tucson hunting coues. and he swears that there is two types of Coues. One a "Red-Tail coues" and the other just a regular coues. He states the the "Red-Tail" lives close to the border in the southern units. I always just humored him but lately have noticed that there are differences in tail color. I just killed one by Arivaca and it had a bright orangeish-red tail that actually looked out of the ordinary. The taxidermist had one from unit 31 that had a very salt and pepper color with no browns or reds on it's tail!? What actually creates these differences in tail color? I've noticed small differences in coues color in different age classes and even region or elevation but only in the face and general hide coloration. Why such a drastic difference in top-side tail color? Hopefully someone knows and I'm not just crazy!

Jim

[JVS]

I have heard from G&F that there is not two or three different types. They are all the exact same species with a bit of color variation. I guess it also depends on whether you want to be a lumper or splitter. If you play too much with the spliting you might just get the endangered species act involved!!! Careful now, we wouldn't want the feds managing our deer . The splitters have named the mount graham squirrel "endangered", therefore half of mount graham is closed up You have to put the dang squirrel under a microscope to tell the difference between it and the other red squirrels in AZ. Anyway, I have seen a coues with a nearly black tail before. I'm pretty sure it was a cross/hybrid muley. The entire deer was a bit strange, but definitley had the white underside of the tail...

[JVS]

OK, I googled it to make sure I wasn't making lies and sounding like an idiot. Here is what I found...

 

The Sonoran Fantail

Within the range of Coues white-tailed deer, there is a common misconception that several different local types exist, the most common of which is the notion that there is an extra-small whitetail (Rock, Sinaloan, Sonoran Fantail, Dwarf) that occurs in localized areas of the Southwest. Young deer, with small 3x3 racks, are often the cause of such rumors because observers mistake them for unusually small, mature bucks. Another contributing factor is the wide variation in the color of the back side of the tail of Coues whitetails. The back surface of the tail may appear gray/brown (same as the animal?s back), reddish, blond, very dark brown, or black. These are not different types of deer, but instead are color variations found in some individuals.

[firstcoueswas80]

the spike i killed this year had some red/orange around his tail but i think it was because he was a young deer and nothing other than that.

[billrquimby]

OK, I googled it to make sure I wasn't making lies and sounding like an idiot.  Here is what I found...

 

The Sonoran Fantail

Within the range of Coues white-tailed deer, there is a common misconception that several different local types exist, the most common of which is the notion that there is an extra-small whitetail (Rock, Sinaloan, Sonoran Fantail, Dwarf) that occurs in localized areas of the Southwest. Young deer, with small 3x3 racks, are often the cause of such rumors because observers mistake them for unusually small, mature bucks. Another contributing factor is the wide variation in the color of the back side of the tail of Coues whitetails. The back surface of the tail may appear gray/brown (same as the animal?s back), reddish, blond, very dark brown, or black. These are not different types of deer, but instead are color variations found in some individuals.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I've heard about the so-called "fantails" all my life, and I even shot one that might qualify for that name in the Sierrita Mountains in 1959 or 1960. It was a miniature five-year old buck that weighed less than 50 pounds gutted. It was the only 4x4 (not counting eyeguards) Arizona whitetail I ever shot. I carried it out like I would a javelina. Funny thing, I didn't know how small it was until I walked up on it. From across a canyon it looked as big as any other Coues whitetail.

 

Coues deer are merely one subspecies of the many whitetail subspecies found in North and South America. Ask Amanda. It is genetically impossible for two races of the same species to exist together in the isolated range of our little deer, which means my buck and the very few "fantails" taken every year in Southern Arizona must be dwarfs, which are extremely rare. Some scientists will even tell you that dwarfism does not exist in the wild. Go figure.

 

As to tail color, I've seen all colors on whitetails on the same mountain, but rufus (red) seems to be in the majority. More interesting to me is the face color of Coues deer in Mexico. Those I've seen from and near Chihuahua typically have very dark gray muzzles, unlike those in Arizona.

[TREESTANDMAN]

It doesn't have anything to do with age, sex, area, or anything. I've gotten pictures of hundreds of different coues deer from all ages and areas and I've seen a pretty decent mix of red,black,grey, and shartruse.

[CouesWhitetail]

I think tail color is just highly variable. I often wonder if it's possible that there is some mule deer influence in the black topped tails of Coues, since I tend to see those more in areas that have both species of deer. However, I think it's just natural variation.

 

If you look in my Coues Biology page, you will see a photo I took of three bucks together in the same area all with different color tails. They were all young bucks, I don't think tail color changes with age.

 

Here is the link to that page: Coues Biology page

 

 

Amanda

[DEERSLAM]

I think their body color tends to very also. I shot a buck in Sonora that was more of a tan color than grey. When compared to another buck taken in the same camp there was a big difference in body color.

[Bronco]

Tail color can vary depending on the time of year. During November hunts the bucks are losing their tan and reddish brown summer coats and getting the gray winter coats. From what I have observed is the tail is one of the last places to get the winter gray. So many deer harvested in the early hunts still have the summer coat of brown on the tail. So you can harvest a buck that hasn't completed lost a summer coat and have a brown tail while being gray on the rest of the body.

[COOSEFAN]

Tail color can vary depending on the time of year.  During November hunts the bucks are losing their tan and reddish brown summer coats and getting the gray winter coats.  From what I have observed is the tail is one of the last places to get the winter gray.  So many deer harvested in the early hunts still have the summer coat of brown on the tail.  So you can harvest a buck that hasn't completed lost a summer coat and have a brown tail while being gray on the rest of the body.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Thanks for all your replies, I still find it fascinating, and the biology pages are great. This is a question I've been afraid to ask for awhile, but now I'm glad I did, it seems like everyone has noticed it and have different ideas and they all sound logical. To Bronco, I thought the summer coat was an outer layer of longer, thinner hair, usually a lighter color, that was shed exposing the thicker, darker color winter coat. If this is the case, the deer I killed about a week ago, would have still been bright orange color after shedding. His tail was orange-red throughout down to the roots, with no white fringe, and no different color underlayer?! Do they actually grow a winter coat while shedding the summer coat?

[COOSEFAN]

Hey, I just noticed I finally lost my "Newbie" ranking! hoooray!

[Rembrant]

Hey J McGehee (Bronco),

How are you????

Yep, it's just a color phase thing that shows up in the genetics, like the variences in face gray and distinction of eye and nose rings, or white "socks" on the feet. Sometimes it can help to identify particular deer. One time my brother was guessing that the doe and fawn we were looking at was the same as the ones we saw the day before, but I was able to tell him that the deer from the day before was a doe with a black tail and a fawn with a cinnimon tail, and todays deer were the exact opposite. New deer.

I have always thought that the deer from the Northern end of their range have longer hair and tend to be darker with more distinct eye and nose rings. I still think the hair is longer, but I'm not so sure about the coloration.

Fun subject.

Mike

[Couesi1]

Hey Rembrandt,

I was out the other day and I saw a couse deer that looked normal except that the tail was purple with black and pink polka dots...........how do you explain that one????? I don't think it had anything to do with summer/winter pelage, only a conspiracy to express its' individuality?. Perhaps a "nexter generation" deer??

 

Can there be a biological explanation?

C-1

[Becker]

I just finished a paper for my wildlife management class about white-tailed deer. There are 17 different recognized subspecies of white-tailed deer in North America not including Mexico!!!! I think there were 38 or 39 subspecies all together. If you want to read some info for yourself and see the distribution maps the title of the book was "White-tailed deer: Ecology and Management". the section was "origin classification and distribution of the white-tailed deer". pages 1-18. Just some cool information that is out there in the literature.

[Rembrant]

Cousi1,

Obviously this poor little deer had to endure growing up in life without a father figure. Maybe he had two mommies, or perhaps his father was KILLED BY YOU!!!

Mike