Ive noticed on a lot of hunting videos, that some deer on the videos have bobbed or very short tails,, and this evening, I had an eight pointer come in and mill around at 15 yards for a while, and make a scrape and clean out another,, anyway, he had a tiny stub of a tail, about 2 inched long. Like I said, before, Ive also seen this in some hunting videos, do they lose them to coyotes or other predators? Or is it something else? Im just curious about it, he was a funny looking guy, I was wondering while I watched him how it worked, since other deer always twitch their tail while they are moving about, and expecially when they start to walk, I watched him, and his little stub wiggled back and forth when he started to walk away from his scrape,,lol. Kinda funny.

Sorry I'm no help..... Never seen that before. Never heard of it either.

But I will watch this thread....I want to see the answers too.

I have yet to see one with a bobbed tail so not sure as to why they would be like that. Did you take this deer? If so, check around the tail and look for scars and you should be able to tell if it is natural or bitten by a predator.
Brandon

frost bite? sometimes on our ranch we will have calves with bob tails and ears if the temps get dangerously low while they are young

yea frostbite was my first thought. Ive never seen it, but i heard about it from a friend of mine. i got a pic of a nice 10on my trail cam last week that might have that same thing goin on, but the picture is a little blurry around the tail and he's workin a scrape, so he might just be waggin it, thinkin bout the fine does in the area.