Black Tailed Deer – Hurricane Ridge, Washington

Early in the morning, I want to Capture a Black Tailed Deer with Cloud in the Background. I must be lucky.
I read about this species during my photo spot selection. When I landed this place driving a 18 Km windy road, there are 2 deers spotted in the downside of the ridge.

The deer walked down the ridge, seemingly unconcerned with being so close that revealed an excitedly babbling family and a clicking camera. Little did I know how representative of the park’s deer this one would be. And even less did I know about the taxonomy of the Black-tailed Deer, which turned out to be not a new species of deer for me at al.

The Black-tailed Deer, or, in this case, the Columbian Black-tailed Deer, is not a full species, but one of two black-tailed subspecies of Mule Deer.* It is found from northern California to British Columbia though it formerly ranged must further east before it was hunted out of its eastern haunts. Though morphologically distinguishable from other subspecies of Mule Deer it is not a species in and of itself.

I read about the other black-tailed subspecies is the Sitka Black-tailed Deer O. h. sitkensis, which ranges from British Columbia up through south central Alaska.
Shot this deer with 24-105 mm 4.0 lens and among the 50+ shots this is the one where the sun rays bounced from the east falls to its back as this animal looks back!Yellow lining on the rear legs, adds more drama to the scene where the black tail shows up distinctly against a blue BG.What else you need from a Black Tailed Deer….!!!