A mishap that must have involved incredible force has left a young mule deer buck in Sheridan with his right antler dangling down toward his face, to the point where he can lick it.
It’s not unusual for parts of deer’s antlers to break off. But a catastrophic break at the base that leaves an antler dangling and flopping around is seldom seen, biologist Kevin Monteith told Cowboy State Daily.
“What must have happened is some level of force caused the pedicle to break, which is why the skin is still attached,” he said.
The pedicle is the raised front portion of an animal’s skull, from which antlers grow.
“That’s pretty rare. More likely what happens is the antler itself snaps,” added Monteith, a biologist with the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming and a taxidermist.
Sheridan residents who have been watching the buck told Cowboy State Daily that he had normal-looking antlers up until about the first week of November.
They don’t know if he suffered his injury in a vehicle strike, a fight with another deer, or through some other misfortune.
Monteith said that although the deer’s injury is weird and dramatic, it shouldn’t threaten his overall health, although his antler will probably be permanently deformed.
Part Of The Metro Deer Herd
Like many communities in Wyoming, Sheridan has a resident urban deer herd.
For the most part, people and deer live alongside each other in peace, but there are some occasional shenanigans.
For instance, in December 2023, three bucks were running around town with Christmas lights tangled in their antlers, because they’d gotten too cozy with residents’ holiday yard displays.
Since 2007, metro archery deer hunts have been allowed in select locations within city limits, to keep the deer population in check.
Typically, roughly 80 bowhunters sign up each year, and about 30 deer are killed.
‘It Kind Of Bounces Around’
Clay Stoner has a large, unfenced backyard adjacent to a creek in Sheridan.
It’s essentially a thoroughfare for deer, and Stoner and his family enjoy watching them.
The buck was among the deer that have shown up this fall, and Stoner said he noticed right away when the deer turned up with a busted antler.
At first glance, he thought the buck might be shedding his antler, but that would have been incredibly weird, because deer usually don’t shed their antlers until the spring.
“When I first saw it (the broken antler), I saw it dangling down by the deer’s face and I thought, ‘Wow, it’s a little early for him to be dropping an antler,’” he said.
Then he noticed that the antler was still attached to the buck’s head, albeit precariously.
“It’s detached, so when he walks, it kind of bounces around, it’s mostly just held on by the skin at the base,” he said.
‘Positioned Strangely’
Sheridan resident Tim Doolin, a photographer, was doing a human portrait session at a local historical site when he noticed the unfortunate buck.
“He happened to show up there, and I just had to take pictures of him, because he’s unique,” Doolin said.
“From what people told me, apparently earlier in the year he was normal, then something happened to him,” he said.
The consensus is that the buck was struck by a vehicle, although nobody seems to know for sure, he added.
“His antler is really quite well-formed otherwise. It looks normal, it’s just positioned strangely,” Doolin said.
Disfigured For Life
Monteith agreed that a vehicle strike is a likely scenario to generate a blow with enough force to break the buck’s antler off at the base.
A fight with another buck is another feasible cause, but not nearly as likely.
“It’s a little early in the rut (deer mating season) for those big, intense battles,” he said.
Regardless of the cause, a break at the pedicle probably means a permanent disfigurement of the buck’s right antler.
“Once this antler falls off, the antler that grows back next year will be severely deformed,” he said.
Does that mean the new antler could grow in the direction of the current one, down toward the buck’s face?
Probably not, Monteith said.
“It’s highly unlikely that next year’s antler will head that way,” he said.
There have been cases of antler growth toward the mouth disrupting a deer’s ability to eat, but Monteith doesn’t think that will be the Sheridan buck’s fate.
“It’s possible. But that’s a very, very rare thing,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
