DAVID Saxon first saw the 8-point when it was running a couple of does Monday morning at West Hill Hunting Club in Holmes County.
That's important to know because what you are about to read would make more sense if it had happened near Chernobyl.
I've heard of "deer hunting nuts," but this is just ridiculous. ;^)
Reminds me of some Republicans. They look good from a distance...
The deer's name was PAT.Actualy since they was the same age a good chance they were twins.In Texas we have an antler season and a non antler season to address this very issue.This is realy not that uncommon.I have also seen this in livestock but not near as common as deer.I have also seen pigs born with no anal orifice.
another hermaphroditic deer story....from
the Manchester Union-Leader.
[snip]
News - February 15, 2002
Deerly departed It’s a buck... a doe... a...
By LORNA COLQUHOUN
Union Leader Correspondent
BENTON — The deer had already met its demise when Jeremy Lamarre came across it on the side of Route 116 the other night.
After obtaining permission from Benton Police Chief Stefan Cimikowski to take it away, Lamarre wrestled it into the back of his Nissan Sentra and brought it home Wednesday.
It looked like a big healthy buck, over 200 pounds. It was starting a new growth of antlers and the other end had . . . well . . . typical buck characteristics, too.
But then he started preparing it for his freezer and that’s when things got weird. “I was dressing it out and I found a fawn inside,” Lamarre said.
He stopped work on the deer and deposited the fetus into a large glass jar. A hunting enthusiast, Lamarre knows his way around deer, but he couldn’t explain this one.
So he took a closer look. There were no outer indications that the deer could be a doe — there were no mammary glands for one thing, and he was having a hard time seeing any internal signs that it could be a doe — except for the fetal fawn.
Naturally, calls were made. The first one was made to an uncle.
“He thought I was crazy,” Lamarre said.
Is he?
“Oh, I’ve been called crazy . . . but I’m sane,” he said with a laugh.
The second or third call was to the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, where he talked with deer biologist Kent Gustafson.
And then arrangements were made for Lamarre to meet the biologist early yesterday in Plymouth, with the carcass and 5-lb. pail of innards so Gustafson could take a look.
“Well, that’s neat,” Gustafson pronounced. “That’s an oddity.”
Once a year or so, he said, a hunter shoots what appears to be a buck, but which turns out to be an antlered doe.
“There’s about one in every 1,000 does,” he said. “When we get a doe with antlers, its usually a hormonal imbalance.”
A chat with some other biology types at Fish and Game turned up anecdotes about people hearing or seeing dogs and cats that were hermaphrodites — that is, they displayed reproductive organs of both sexes.
But no one recalls ever seeing a hermaphroditic deer.
“I’m going to check around with Maine and Vermont and see if they’ve ever seen anything like this, but I haven’t heard of anything like this in New Hampshire,” he said.
The two men spent several minutes examining the deer carcass yesterday morning.
“It looks like good antlers,” Gustafson said. “They have some velvet and that is typical of does with antlers, but that’s a big deer — bigger than the average doe.”
“It isn’t quite male or female,” Lamarre said. “I didn’t know what it could be. It’s got to be pretty rare.”
Gustafson noted that the size of the fawn was “the right size for this time of year,” but whether it would have come to term is a question that can’t be answered. If it had, there would have been no way for it to nurse.
He estimated the age of the deer to be at least 2½ years.
“There are animals that show characteristics of both sexes,” he said. “It’s rare, but it does occur. I just haven’t heard of a deer having both parts.”
Gustafson said he would ask other biologists about the oddity and assured Lamarre it was all right to continue butchering it.
“Thanks for bringing him down . . . her down . . . whatever,” Gustafson said.
[/snip]
whoa.... how long do those pigs last?
All the goodolboys I know field-strip(dress) the thing before they drag it anywhere; they say it preserves the meat.
