Though some would argue the Black-tailed Deer are their own species for now the powers to be call them a subspecies of the Mule Deer. For me they are their own species, both the Columbian Black-tailed Deer of the Northwest Coasts and the Sitka Black-tailed Deer of the Alaskan coast. To see them you must go to where they live. Knowing that is what causes me to give the Black-tailed Deer it's own identity. That identity is a small deer of the temperate rain forests of the northwestern US. Specifically the tangled edges of growth along the flanks of dark forests. That is who this deer is.