Maybe I should have called this show, Infundibula, blah, blah, blah, instead of Desert Mule Deer. I love to poke fun at scientific terms, but the truth is that I love the language of biology or in this case zoology. By the way, the word infundibula means funnel shaped, so the hollow pits as seen on the premolars and molars of our deer and gives them their generic name, are funnel shaped. Maybe if you use your imagination. Anyway, we are so lucky to have these large artiodactyl ungulates in the Cervidae – that was fun – out in the wild borderlands of southeastern Arizona.
A couple notes: the book I mentioned is Deer of the Southwest by Jim Heffelfinger. And the photos are mine. Two photos are of a large group out in the grassland. If you look closely you can spot some antlers. And I love the one of the two mulies in the orchard. I took that photo early in the morning with my cell phone.
I am not that great at identifying native grasses, but I keep on trying . Thank goodness some are really quite easy to ID...
What a fun discovery in the desert east of Douglas, Arizona. There is just something about these large spinescent shrubs in the buckthorn family,...
Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) makes up for its lack of milky sap with the copious amount of nectar found in the flowers. Stand back...
