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December 16, 2007
The beauty of nature
Behold the "unicorn deer," who tripped off a hunter's camera in Western NY recently. There's a few theories about how this deer came to get his extra antler, including from a fight, a birth defect, or simply bumping it:
He showed the picture to a select few hunter friends. They suggested that the antler might be a piece of another buck’s antler that became lodged in the deer’s head during a fight.
But Ebeling said he didn’t think so, because three weeks after the camera took the first picture, it recorded another image. It appears to be the same deer because the antler is in the same spot as the first photo.
“If it was something like [a piece of another deer’s antler], it would have been off or turned sideways, because they fight,” he said.
Tim Spierto, senior wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said he has never seen a deer quite like the one pictured, but he did have a possible explanation for the antler.
“He must have bumped that antler fairly early on in development,” Spierto said, adding that such an injury may have led to the extra antler. “Bumping it or scraping it could cause it to form another antler right at the injury point,” he said.
Now, such a unique animal deserves respect, does it not? Like the occasional blue lobster, they're objects of curiosity that people aren't eager to destroy. So, I'm heartened to see what the fellow who took the deer's picture would like to see happen with it:
“I just wish somebody would shoot it so we’d know what that was,” Ebeling said.
entry no. 1034
Posted at December 16, 2007 10:41 AM