08/22/2025
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Timmy Horton OutdoorsCody Bowen Music
When we built the preserve at willow oak, everyone told me to get the native deer out. I didn’t want to do that. I was intrigued to see how big Northwest Alabama deer could grow with age, nutrition, and low stress.
The difference is easy to see when you ride around this place from their northern counterparts. The northern deer are a hip taller, a hip longer and at two years old they will look lankey compared to the southern deer, they also have much bigger ears and longer tails, they also have a more caramel type coat in the summer compared to the clay red of the southern deer. The southern deer appear much stockier, kinda like comparing gymnast to a basketball player. They also have a black nose and cheek bone area look during their summer coats, and the winter coats are much more grey than the northern deer. When walking face on the Southern deer apperars a lot thicker in body mass, probably because they are shorter than the northern deer, however when the northern deer hit three plus, then they are built like an NFL offensive tackle.
We have had a 172, 164 and many 150+ deer that have been harvested here in the past six years that were pure native genetics. I will share some pics in the comments. The pic in the post is a group I got last week.
