Back in February, we noticed a white-tailed doe that had one ear shorter than the other among the deer that come to raid the bird feeders. Then last week I saw this one with 2 bobbed ears. What is going on? Were they injured? Is some crazy person taking deer ears as trophies? Is there a mutation generating bob-eared deer? Finally it was still light enough when I got home from work for me to get a couple of barely passable photos. She looks kind of sweet from this vantage.
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The light was fading, so the shots are not sharp. But if you click to enlarge the photo below you can see sore spots on the ears.
I believe what I had thought were 2 does is really just one slowly losing bits of her ears. Perhaps her ears were badly frost-bitten during those bitter cold weeks we had and the dead parts are falling off. Otherwise, she looks healthy. Has anyone else ever seen anything like this? I will keep an eye on her this spring to see how she fares.
Strangely i cannot see the pictures :-(
ReplyDeleteWow what a weird looking deer.......
ReplyDeleteChris - I re-posted the pics. Hope you get a chance to try again.
ReplyDeleteStu - isn't it! I have a couple of friends who are sending the photos to a friend at the Minnesota of Department of Natural Resources and another friend at a local wildlife park to see if they know what is going on. If I get any answers, I will do another post.
Poor thing, it looks like it should be very painful, I do hope it isn't!
ReplyDeleteI do hope you manage to find out what is going on.
Jan - I think I have an answer to what this is. I hope to post a little more about it in the next few days. If it is what I think it is, she should be OK. Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeletecheers,
wilma