Odd Antler Stories

Odd Antler Stories

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
I was talking with Idaho Fish and game's chief information officer, Mike Demick, about a mule deer buck who had somehow lost that part of his anatomy that made him a buck. He must have been jumping a fence or been in a fight or something. Somehow this injury altered the appearance of the buck's rack. Mike had heard stories like that and then related something that it happened up in northern Idaho. There was another situation, up in Lewiston, where a buck had been hit by a car and badly injured one of his back legs. It must have been in the fall. So the next year this deer grew on the opposite side of its broken leg a very strange looking antler. That happens quite often where a deer or elk will get injured and then on the opposite side of the injury the antler will grow weird. I don't know what the causes but it is actually something that happens quite often.
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