The mule deer and the black-tailed deer are the same species, but different subspecies. They have been separated by the Coastal Range of mountains so long that they have evolved a somewhat different appearance and behaviour. While the region around Kootenay Lake has both the white-tailed deer and the mule deer, it lacks the black-tailed deer.
First a earlier picture of a mule deer near the Lake. Its rope-like tail is largely white, but has a black tip.
This black-tailed deer was seen yesterday just west of the crest of the Coastal Mountains. The black on its tail extends the full length, and the whole deer is somewhat darker.
I understand the Sitka black-tailed deer on Haida Gwaii – also subspecies – was introduced in the latter part of the 1800’s by European settlers, only a few, then more in the 2nd decade of the 1900’s. They found an unoccupied niche and have proliferated to a staggering few hundred thousand, with considerable harm to the endemic flora and fauna.