Antlered Doe

[Kelly]

My buddy from Ohio shot this deer mid season in 2004 on a suburban hunt unit in dang near downtown Toledo.

Not sure of the official antler score but it's actually a doe. All femal parts but with a tiny littl ebit of "Buck parts" as well. Weighed well over 300 live and Ohio DNR said she was 4 YO and had enough testosterone to grow the rack but not enough to ever harden them...she'd been growing antlers, perpetully in vevet, for her entire life.

 

[JB]

got any better pix's or a link to a story....otherwise, i call bullshit.

 

[noharleyyet]

I've heard of this before. The game wardens here have related numerous instances. That is a good sized rack, too bad it wasn't a Mister.

 

[Mojave]

It's certainly genetically possible. There are even hermaphrodites in the human population.

 

[pa mt man]

I think Whiskers pointed one out to me the other day!

 

[elkfarmer]

i will post a pic tomarrow of the one i shot in 2003. last day of muzzle loader season, a group of deer came by and i shot the spike at about 5 yrds. I seen this deer all year and thought it was a spike with a couple of yearling does, but to my surprise it was a doe with her fawns. I guess i never paid attention to the size of the other deer.

That was quite a surprize.

 

[huntinfool]

that will be a great story to tell about though and a nice rack to boot

 

[Kelly]

Don't blame ya JB...it's an oddity for sure.
Here's the http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041104/COLUMNIST22/411040399&SearchID=7320272022864. I "cut and pasted" for easier access.

My buddy Rick is in the pics along with his 9YO son Tristan.


Here's the Story from the Toledo Blade...



Monster antlered deer surprises successful bowhunter


Bowhunter Rick Willard has bagged a monster buck in western Lucas County. Except that he didn't.
It was a monster antlered doe. Well, sort of. Here's the story:

It was a huge animal. Nine long-tined points, but strangely still in velvet, right in these early stages of the rut, or breeding season.

The deer scaled at 260 pounds, field-dressed, meaning it weighed about 330 on the hoof. It was 25 inches around the neck, under the chin. The unhardened, unpolished antlers were 22 inches wide at the outside, about seven inches around the bases.

Most unusual of all, the deer had an underdeveloped penis but no testicles, a vagina and ovaries, but no female teats or milk sac inside the chest, just a mass of fatty tissue instead. It was a rare hermaphrodite, an animal having both sexes.

Willard, owner of Capricorn Construction, was hunting on private land from a ground blind when the big deer approached. "It acted like a doe," Willard said. "But then I noticed velvet antlers." He took the deer with one shot from his crossbow at about 14 yards. "I had my son, Tristan, 8, with me."

But the boy had fallen asleep so soundly that he missed the action. In fact he was lightly snoring and that quiet "grunting" apparently drew the curiosity of a small six-point buck. "When Tristan woke up, he got to see a six-point," the hunter added.

Mike Reynolds, a forest wildlife research biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, confirmed that the Willard deer is a rarity, a hermaphrodite, possessing both sets of sex organs. One or two antlered does usually turn up in the state bag each season, and last year at least three were reported statewide out of an all-season bag of more than 200,000.

Such antlered non-male deer have chemical imbalances. "It probably had an overproduction of testosterone," said Reynolds. "It's an interesting one."

Last year he checked a nine-point antlered doe in Belmont County in the southeast. He said that a Pennsylvania study estimated that about one antlered buck in every 3,500 actually is a doe.

Ohio biologists first documented an antlered doe in 1957 and again in 1965. "In some cases both sets of reproductive organs are present - true hermaphrodites," said Reynolds. "But in others the male organs may not be fully developed.

"Antlered does commonly have velvet antlers that are not shed annually. Hardened antlers are less common in does because it requires very high levels of testosterone. Most antlered does have higher than normal levels of testosterone but the levels are not as high as in bucks. Velvet-antlered does may be fertile, but does with hardened antlers typically are not capable of conception and pregnancy."

Because of the size of the rack, it is likely that Willard's deer is older, having added
annually to its unshed antlers, inasmuch as most antlered does have smallish, spindly sets of antlers.

In any case, such rarities help explain why Ohio deer hunting regulations describe antlered or antlerless deer, not bucks or does.

I do have a couple other pics but I apologize for the quality. They were taken at night and not by me.

These are all I have...I could take more...he gets the mount back next week. Hard to find a Taxidermist around here that'll gaurantee a velevet rack...our seasons almost never have the option.

 

[DeerKing]

Heckuva nice deer, and very unusual.

 

[elkfarmer]

well mine is nothing like that, but i was still happy with it...

well compared to the other one i had to make mine look bigger, anyone know how to adjust the size of pics?

 

[Pygmy]

Kelly... Very unique..Thanks for sharing... I've heard of a couple of antlered does over the years, but that is the first actual hermaphrodite I've heard of, and has BY FAR the best rack...The other ones I know of were a spike like Elkfarmer's that was taken in Vermont by a friend of mine and one that was killed near Campbell, NY a few years ago had a small six point rack.. As far as I know, those deer were biologically female, but just grew antlers for whatever reason...

 

[Kelly]

That's a heck of a trophy too Elkfarmer.

I personally like the odd ones.

I passed on several decent whitetails last year looking for one that had the right side antler follow his jawline.

Looked kinda like he had a midrophone headset on


Never could get him in range though

 

[danr55]

Any of you guys who are long time RMEF members, look up Bugle from 1996. There is a story in there about a guy with a bull tag who shot a cow. Turned himself into the local game warden who wrote him a ticket. He was released when the judge saw the picture of the cow. She had a five point rack. A large five point rack..

 

[Nut]

Great deer. Boy that is so neat that it was taken close to home.