In November 2013 an injured white-tailed buck appeared on one of my camera traps above the house –
He was fully mature, at least two and a half years old and probably three and a half. His distinctive non-typical antlers with the little extra point on what is called the G2 tine are very distinctive.
The buck’s upper left leg or shoulder was injured: maybe from a hunter’s bullet or arrow, or perhaps he’d been hit by a vehicle, or fallen in one of the rocky areas up on the hill, or was injured in a fight with another buck, or …
He appeared on camera again in January 2014, making three appearances, two in still photos and once in a video clip –
In the video it was rather obvious that he couldn’t put weight on the leg and he dragged it as he limped along.
Then he disappeared and we thought he was gone – did he succumb to his injury, did infection set in, did the eastern coyotes or free-ranging dogs that roam the hills bring him down, maybe the snow and cold of winter ended his life.
But then – in February 2015 there he was again, in a photo from a camera trap. This time he’d already shed his antlers, but the way he held his left leg and what appeared to be a healed wound on the inside of the same leg made it apparent that the injured buck was back.
He was gone through spring, summer and most of the fall of 2015 until he showed up in a camera trap photo once again in early November –
This time his antlers had more bulk but they weren’t symmetrical and they still had those odd little extraneous tines.
After that one photo he was gone again – shot by a hunter, eaten by a carnivore, …?
March 2016 came and so did the injured buck. Once again he’d shed his antlers; and he was still favoring that left front leg. Even in a still photo from the camera trap it was obvious that the buck was dragging the leg –
We hadn’t actually seen the buck, we only knew he was visiting from his camera trap appearances and infrequent tracks in the snow.
The buck was gone again, having survived far longer than we thought he would. Although white-tailed deer are tough critters and he’s not the first severely injured deer I’ve seen, his was a really debilitating injury.
No show throughout the rest of 2016, or 2017, or 18, or 19, 20, 21, 22, or 23.
And then came December 2024 and there was the same injured buck in a daylight video from a camera trap right behind the house. He had no antlers having either shed them early or failed, to have grown antlers. But he was still dragging that leg –
Where
was he for those eight years? It’s well known that white-tail bucks
wander quite widely during the rut as they search for receptive does.
After the rut bucks return to their home range where they spend
the spring, summer and early fall.
This buck may well spend those months elsewhere and only come our way occasionally during the rut, does that account for those eight years?
Our property adjoins thousands of acres of public and private woodland, much of which is seldom visited by a human.
Was he ever successful in breeding during any of the years after he was first injured? Look closely at the photo from November 2015 and you’ll see that the tip of the small extra tine on his right antler appears to have been broken off in a fight with another buck. Did he win the doe or was he driven off?
But the ultimate question is how did he survive all those years? The cold and snow of winter; predation by dogs, eastern coyotes and black bears; hunters; starvation; and exhaustion from the rigors of the rut can all cause the demise of any injured deer and yet this injured buck survived.
Many more questions than answers.