weird deer

Freak Buck Had Corneal Dermoids. Yes, Hairy Eyeballs.

Feb 17, 2021 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

In the first 6 months that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency offered a new “Report Sick Deer” button on their website, the hotline netted one of the weirdest sick whitetails in history, one of only…

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A New Clue in the Unsolved Mystery of Bullwinkle Deer

Oct 28, 2020 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

We now know the guilty bacteria causing the condition that for at least 18 years has been transforming a few, rare, unlucky whitetails into Bullwinkle Deer. But that’s about all we know. Mannheimia granulomatis is…

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This Strange Buck Was a Throwback to Extinct Whitetail Ancestors

Jun 12, 2019 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Each one of us is the product of our ancestors, and more recent relatives have the greatest influence on who we are. But sometimes, through the weird acoustics of the sprawling genetic cave from which…

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What Causes Deer Food Impactions?

Sep 19, 2018 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Grotesque facial swelling on a deer, known as a food impaction and sometimes also called “lumpy jaw,” is one of the weirdest sights a deer hunter can encounter on their trail-camera images or in person…

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A Look Inside Piebald Deer

Aug 24, 2017 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Missy Runyan, a wildlife rehabilitator in Hunter, New York, responded to a call about a fawn in distress on May 24 of this year and found an almost completely white, piebald fawn with severe birth…

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Someone Tossed a Bottle in the Woods and Killed a Nice Buck

Jan 18, 2017 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

As a hunter and fisherman who enjoys clean water and clean forests, I despise a litterbug, Few things aggravate me more than physical evidence that someone was here before me and treated the land with…

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What is Wrong With This Strange Buck?

Sep 30, 2015 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

We’ve received photos of some extremely weird deer at QDMA, but the ones I got this week from my friend Ryan Basinger in Alabama deserve a place in the Hall of Strange. Here was a…

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So Your Deer Has Warts. Should You Eat It?

Sep 11, 2015 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Each year, hunters across the whitetail’s range encounter deer with “warts,” like the buck in the photo above, sent to us by QDMA member Evan Heusinkveld. The growths on these deer are cutaneous fibromas and…

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10 Weird Parasites that Live Inside Deer

Oct 20, 2014 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

You may not want to know what I’m about to tell you: Whitetails are virtual school buses for parasites. They are packed from nose to tail with mucus-covered lifeforms. The good news is these parasites…

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The Mysterious Bullwinkle Deer

Dec 31, 2013 Lindsay Thomas Jr.

Whitetails are hardened survivors. They thrive despite predators, highways, heat waves, blizzards, floods, drought and poachers with spotlights. They get hung in fences, fall down old wells, and crash through plate-glass windows. They snag their…

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