Deer cross breeding

Was driving through the Hill Country last week and saw a whitetail buck standing close to a group of 6 Axis does. Do you think the whitetail breed with the Axis?

No they don’t, but I’m sure we will have a bunch of people come on after my post claiming they have seen crosses….







They are not the same family of species. That would be akin to a pronghorn breeding with an Impala

Had a square-head adult Sunday school teacher that said you will NEVER see whitetail with axis. He was adamant. And wrong a lot, about a lot of things.

Research species and genera,

Likelihood no(per history and genera)….probability… if theres is a will there is a way with humans

Out here in the hill county I've seen whitetail does repeatedly hanging with axis several times. May not be genetically possible without human intervention.

Herd animal mentality. That's all it is in my opinion. Watch two cows, two goats and a donkey cut loose on a pasture. They will likely all be together.

In prey animals, the more eyes watching out for predators the better.

Bobo, is it genetically possible for Axis and Whitetail to produce live young? I wouldn't think it would take.

Near Dickens, TX I saw mule deer blended in with cattle.

Around my place, I've seen whitetail blended in with cattle.

Going the the definition, species is a group than can breed and produce viable offspring. Whitetails and axis have different species names, I would assume they cannot sue successfully reproduce.

A species, technically, is a distinct group of animals that naturally interbreed together. Other species within their genera may be able to crossbreed as closely related species, but that is not always physically possible, not always genetically viable, and the offspring that may be produced won't always be viable to reproduce again. Only rarely (and the only examples I know of are of lesser vertebrates and invertebrates) do cross genus matings result in viable offspring, but I don't know of any mammalian examples (though there may be some).

So the more different two animals are, the less likely the hydridization. Even when it does occur and the offspring are viable genetically, that doesn't always mean they do well physically. Hydridization of more closely related whitetail and mule deer results in viable young, but apparently maladapted to survival. https://www.themeateater.com/conser...ten-do-whitetail-and-mule-deer-hybridize

So the deer seen with the axis deer have little chance of successfully mating and producing offspring and even if successful, the offspring likely won't be genetically viable to continue, assuming that the crossbreeding hasn't made them wonky like white-mulie crosses.

I would think this is no a no go, similar to any other cross species breeding. Does not mean it wouldn't be tried in the wild, but you have to believe if it produced anything viable or desirable humans would be all over it already.

As with any rule, there may be exceptions, but I would say the species limit is in play here...

From my limited knowledge, Not within normal breeding, I think it would require specialized fertilization and implementation.

think its like pigs and warthogs … so close but to far away from each genetically. Key being I think.

It’s genetically impossible for a fetus to form with a whitetail and axis breeding.

You would have to implant the embryo into the uterus and the female would act like a surrogate. It’s not something they could naturally be propagated.

Animals running together is a different matter. I’ve seen an ibex Billy that ran with a herd of Sika deer. Really the only one who probably knew it was an ibex was the Sika as the ibex didn’t have a mirror to discern he was the odd one out.

I’ve seen axis and whitetail intermingle in the same space and same feed station much like other animals.


If being in close proximity to other animal species resulted in offspring we would have all kinds of wonky stuff; elk crossed with mule deer, black bear and Grizzly hybrids, mule deer and antelope crosses, the list goes on.

I have heard that it’s possible for an aoudad to cross with a Boer goat but you almost have to have them inside a pen for the intimate encounter to happen.

Agree. Herd animals will stick to any herd for protection, even if for moments of feeding.
And also agree, there is a reason we don't see WT elk, and muley elks, and whatever else hybrid weirdo you can think of. Species are species and despite evolution theory saying otherwise, we just aren't seeing new species developing and instead of macro-evolution, its really been a macro-devolution as the number of species is shrinking slowly over time rather than expanding. Thats way beyond this topic though...

God knows what he's doing.

That's what I thought too.

Not like a Gawd Dang Polled Hereford cow getting bred by a Brahman bull.

Hybrid vigor. Makes em psychopaths!

This may explain my mother in law.

😎 well done sir , well done

kinda on subject.

Macfarlane's Bear. 1864

Not supose ta exist.

The only crosses I can verify first hand and with photo evidence in the Hill Country is Red Deer and Elk.

Sika, red deer and elk will all cross with each other. Genetically they are similar.

Not saying that they can cross, but I had an old man that had killed some fantastic mule deer tell me that he always tried to hunt close to a herd of elk. He said he believed that the scent of a cow elk in estrus, which came in much earlier than mule deer does do, attracted the mule deer bucks. He said he discovered this quite by accident when he started paying attention to where he was seeing mule deer bucks and realized that many of the larger bucks were found close to herds of elk. Now I am not saying that they cross, but I can see where the females in estrus of any species might attract another species that was fairly closely related. Old man had 3 bucks mounted on his walls over 200. Maybe he was just full of baloney and poached all of them, but he had some heads to back up his theory.

Hard to say. Haven’t ever observed mule deer hanging around elk in any number and from what I understand they don’t really like being around them.

While I don’t believe that it’s possible to successfully reproduce, it is funny watching a young axis or blackbuck chase a hot WT doe around, and vice versa.

Our landowner near Priddy told us not to shoot any Axis that get loose from the HF ranch beside us. He said they might breed with our whitetail. I always felt like he was insulting our intelligence or he was just that stupid. Unfortunately, we never, FN ever, saw any baby Axtails running around. Eventually all the surrounding neighbors shot all the Axis that got loose. Just like the Ibex we weren`t allowed to shoot.

I shot a mulie/whitetail hybrid in CO (verified by a tissue sample taken by the CO DOW) about 25 years ago. So that cross breed is possible but I don't think they would cross with axis.

Taking to biologists it’s typically a whitetail buck breeding a Muley doe.

I ran across a herd of mule deer does in west Texas that had a single WT doe that hung with them. Apparently she had for years.

I was always curious if a muley buck ever bred her successfully?

not sure about the whitetail and exotic crosses, but had a landowner tell me I killed a red deer hind that was a cross with another exotic on the ranch