Mule Deer – Playground Buck | Mia's Motivations

It’s been a fun weekend. LG and I were pretty busy, but it seemed everywhere we went there were mule deer. She practiced volleyball with a friend at our local park, and these deer didn’t even give she or her friend a second look.

Check out this “playground buck”. Do you think he was going to hop on the slide?

I caught him rubbing his musk glands when his lady friend wasn’t looking. Nope. He’s not squatting. He’s just “applying a little cologne” for her. Mule deer have two glands beneath black, furry spots on their back legs. They will urinate a little on these spots to enhance the scent from the glands. They rub their legs together to secrete the scent (pheromone). It’s a way of expressing dominance, especially during rut (mating season).