"Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer." Deut. 14:3-53Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4These are the beasts which ye shall eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5The hart, and the roebuck, and the fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and the chamois. (Deuteronomy 14:3‑5).
Mule deer are found from the states of Washington to Texas, from Manitoba and Alberta down through Montana to southern California, Arizona and on into Mexico. Tourists are often delighted to see them in the redwood groves of California, as well as at Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Glacier Park.
This is a majestic and pretty deer with soft eyes and velvety coat, so very impressive as it stands alert, head held high, with its grand spread of antlers. Its coat, brown in summer and gray in winter, has a white fur patch at the back from which a short, black-tipped white tail is used as a warning signal to others when danger is near. Pronged antlers, the pride of bucks (females rarely have them) are divided into two branches with short, sharp tines and are shed and renewed each year. Hunters consider them quite a trophy.
Weighing some 200 pounds, they are larger and more heavily built than most deer and often reach five feet in length and stand three feet high at the shoulders. As smart and wary as any animal, they have survived intense hunting over the years. Protected in many areas, there are probably over a million throughout the west. Rather than running as a horse does, they move in a series of stiff-legged leaps, landing back on all four sturdy legs after each jump and can keep going swiftly this way for a long time. Good swimmers, they do not hesitate to cross rivers and lakes when necessary.
Why are they called mule deer? Because of their large open ears that stand erect behind the horns. When the Lewis and Clark expedition, way back in 1804, first saw them they were reminded of mules back home and gave them this name, which still identifies them.
Fawns (often twins) are usually born in the spring and stay with the mother through the summer. They are prettily covered with white spots on reddish-brown bodies until about five months old. Mule deer like to stay in groups, and 300 to 400 may be seen at one time migrating to high altitudes in the summer and back to the valleys in the winter to fill their constant need of grass, shrubs and leaves, flavored whenever available with lots of acorns and nuts. Like all living things they are always under their Creator's watchful care.
Our opening Bible verse is from the laws given to God's Old Testament people and points out that fallow deer (related to the mule deer) were among the clean animals they could eat. Although we are not now under those laws, God does want us to avoid the unclean things of the world and follow the clean, pure ways given in His Word, the Bible. It is good for us to remember this in everything we do.