Columbian White-Tailed Deer

GutshotApe · 01-12-2003, 12:02 PM

Yeah, they're common around Roseburg. Drive the Northbank Road from Wilbur to Glide and you'll see some.

There's also a population of Col. whitetails on lower Columbia islands and the mainland around Knappa-Cathlamet.

TheRogue · 01-12-2003, 12:15 PM

I've seen whitetails around Grants Pass. I've also seen one here in the valley, a few years back when I had a Willy unit tag, and was hunting the river islands.

GutshotApe · 01-12-2003, 12:22 PM

ODFW records a few sightings around London south of Cottage Grove.

When I lived in Eugene about 1990 I saw a deer that I was sure was a whitetail near an EWEB reservoir in the SW hills.

I've shot several deer along the river between Eugene and Corvallis but never saw anything but blacktails there.

ODFW has plans to reintroduce whitetails to suitable habitat in its former range.

[ 01-12-2003, 01:23 PM: Message edited by: GutshotApe ]

01-12-2003, 11:52 PM

I was check out th OPB Oregon Field guide site and found this. I thought you guys might like to check it out.
Have any of you guys ever seen one of these? I have read about them in the regs but have never thought much about them.
I would like to go look for those down by Roseburg.
Dont tell the Outdoor Channel or they will be putting up food plots and auto feeeders

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/1305/whitetailed.html

Oh and read this about where the ducks are http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/1011/sewage/

[ 01-12-2003, 01:10 PM: Message edited by: Tulley ]

fishuntr2 · 01-13-2003, 07:04 AM

Last year I harvested a buck above the Forest Grove watershed that must have been a white/black tail cross. The tail was half brown and half black with long black hairs at the tail end. The antlers (3-pt) look more like a whitetail than blacktail. I had the rack mounted and preserved the tail so if anybody questioned the antlers I can show them the tail.
My father shot a whitetail years ago between Scottsburg and Elkton.
Bob

steelheadslayer · 01-13-2003, 03:25 PM

I think some of you are confused as to what a Columbian White tailed deer is. If I'm wrong, please let me know. The Columbian White tailed deer is I believe specifically located in the Lower Columbia River Region. Cathlamet on downriver to Naselle? If you want a good chance to see these small deer which are just a tad larger than a Great Dane, drive to the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge just west of Cathlamet and follow the road all the way around. It comes back out to the main road just a little farther west. Or drive around Puget Island. I hunt geese down there alot and I never fail to see at least a couple with out driving very far.

TheRogue · 01-13-2003, 05:01 PM

As I understand it, they historically existed throughout the Willy valley, up the Cowlitz valley, and some of the Southern OR valleys.

GutshotApe · 01-13-2003, 06:34 PM

When Lewis & Clark came thru they killed & ate whitetails on Deer Island in the Columbia below St.Helens. The Col. whitetail was found in river bottoms from Astoria to The Dalles and from Olympia south to at least Canyonville, maybe into the Rogue valley, too. There are now two populations left, one around Roseburg and another in the lower Columbia area. These deer are no smaller than the blacktails found in the same habitat.

The Roseburg pop. is doing fairly well and is about to come off the ESA list - or it already did? The lower Columbia pop. was hit hard by 1996 flooding and by parasite/habitat problems - but is holding forth in several sub-population groups on islands and mainland areas.

.

Paddlefish · 01-14-2003, 07:09 AM

As I recall, the lower Columbia refuges were created because the whitetail populations really deserved the "endangered" label. They did their job, however. When I bicycled around Puget Island in the early 90s, the whitetails were EVERYWHERE. (Think dairy cattle in Tillamook County, only a LOT smaller.)

GSA, you're right about the '96 flood really hammering them, however. I can still see some just about every time out in the area, but nothing like "the old days."

Speaking of Puget Island, it seems the dairy farms are selling out and folding up, to be replaced by cottonwood-poplar hybrid pulp plantations owned by the mega-national paper companies. Is this a good thing? :whazzup:

GutshotApe · 01-14-2003, 07:25 AM

When I was in high school a classmate used to always shoot his deer at grandma's house on Puget Island (was legal back then). The hybrid poplar farms are probably better habitat for deer and other wildlife than plain old cow pasture. They are definitely better for wildlife than splitting the farms up into 5-acre ranchettes. I recall hearing complaints from the poplar farmers about deer browse on the young clones so apparently the deer like poplars. But, after the plantations are 3-4 years old they probably don't provide a lot of browse. The good thing is they are cut and the cycle repeats every 7 or 8 yrs.

Norm · 01-14-2003, 08:10 PM

I saw a little buck last year in the saddle mountain unit that looked looked a lot like a whitetail. It was about 5 miles north of 26 and 20 miles west of the coast. I was wondering if there was some genetic mixing going on in the lower columbia between blacktail and whitetail. It was an odd color brown for a blacktail with a brownish tail and a long snout. I don't think it was a pure whitetail, but it didn't look right for a blacktail either.

Boedy · 01-14-2003, 09:32 PM

I found a shed in the Santiam unit a few years ago that was a dead ringer for 4 point whitetail rack. One main beam with points off it just like the ones you see in hunting magazines. It was a real nice one too real thick base and tall points. I never did track down the other side but I still look around for it and the buck that is sporting it. I�ve seen some Mule deer crosses before but nothing like this no way it was a Mulley. Real high up to not close to the valley at all. Not telling where so don�t ask :grin:

outdoor.spec.ops · 01-15-2003, 01:55 PM

Fish-hunter,

We aslo picked up a buck between Scottsburg and Elkton that looked like a Whitetail? Back tail, but white tail looking horns? Strange.

Tunamaster · 01-15-2003, 04:58 PM

Boedy,
I have seen several 4pt blacktail racks which have had one side which was not bifurcated (forked). They looked much like a whitetail, but were pure blacktails. I have never seen this condition presented symmetrically, however, on a blacktail deer.

Tunamaster · 01-15-2003, 04:59 PM

Boedy,
I have seen several 4pt blacktail racks which have had one side which was not bifurcated (forked). They looked much like a whitetail, but were pure blacktails. I have never seen this condition presented symmetrically, however, on a blacktail deer.

joliver · 01-15-2003, 05:26 PM

here is one for the record books. It is number 8 and shot just outside of Mist Oregon years ago when hunting them was legal west of hwy 30.

GutshotApe · 01-15-2003, 07:15 PM

I read something about genetic testing of Columbian whitetail subspecies a couple of years ago. Seems like the lower Columbia River population showed more separation from the Roseburg pop. than the Roseburg pop. did from the Idaho whitetail subspecies of eastern Oregon. I think...... :whazzup:

imported_skunkedagain · 01-16-2003, 01:53 PM

My son has a tag for a special antlerless Blacktail hunt just west of Glide. Went with him two weekends ago and never saw so many deer in my life. Almost all were Whitetail. The sneaky Blacktail don't let you see them nearly as easily. If you just want to see Whitetail, go for a stroll on the Dunning ranch. You won't be disappointed.