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.