130+ 9point DOE
11-05-2004, 05:06 PM
#32
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Detroit
Posts: 858
RE: 130+ 9point DOE
So....the results from the Ohio DNR are back.
It was a hermaphrodite I guess. Here's the story from the Toledo Blade...
Monster antlered deer surprises successful bowhunter
Bowhunter Rick Willard has bagged a monster buck in western Lucas County. Except that he didn't.
It was a monster antlered doe. Well, sort of. Here's the story:
It was a huge animal. Nine long-tined points, but strangely still in velvet, right in these early stages of the rut, or breeding season.
The deer scaled at 260 pounds, field-dressed, meaning it weighed about 330 on the hoof. It was 25 inches around the neck, under the chin. The unhardened, unpolished antlers were 22 inches wide at the outside, about seven inches around the bases.
Most unusual of all, the deer had an underdeveloped penis but no testicles, a vagina and ovaries, but no female teats or milk sac inside the chest, just a mass of fatty tissue instead. It was a rare hermaphrodite, an animal having both sexes.
Willard, owner of Capricorn Construction, was hunting on private land from a ground blind when the big deer approached. "It acted like a doe," Willard said. "But then I noticed velvet antlers." He took the deer with one shot from his crossbow at about 14 yards. "I had my son, Tristan, 8, with me."
But the boy had fallen asleep so soundly that he missed the action. In fact he was lightly snoring and that quiet "grunting" apparently drew the curiosity of a small six-point buck. "When Tristan woke up, he got to see a six-point," the hunter added.
Mike Reynolds, a forest wildlife research biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, confirmed that the Willard deer is a rarity, a hermaphrodite, possessing both sets of sex organs. One or two antlered does usually turn up in the state bag each season, and last year at least three were reported statewide out of an all-season bag of more than 200,000.
Such antlered non-male deer have chemical imbalances. "It probably had an overproduction of testosterone," said Reynolds. "It's an interesting one."
Last year he checked a nine-point antlered doe in Belmont County in the southeast. He said that a Pennsylvania study estimated that about one antlered buck in every 3,500 actually is a doe.
Ohio biologists first documented an antlered doe in 1957 and again in 1965. "In some cases both sets of reproductive organs are present - true hermaphrodites," said Reynolds. "But in others the male organs may not be fully developed.
"Antlered does commonly have velvet antlers that are not shed annually. Hardened antlers are less common in does because it requires very high levels of testosterone. Most antlered does have higher than normal levels of testosterone but the levels are not as high as in bucks. Velvet-antlered does may be fertile, but does with hardened antlers typically are not capable of conception and pregnancy."
Because of the size of the rack, it is likely that Willard's deer is older, having added
annually to its unshed antlers, inasmuch as most antlered does have smallish, spindly sets of antlers.
In any case, such rarities help explain why Ohio deer hunting regulations describe antlered or antlerless deer, not bucks or does.
Seems like I met her sister/brother at a show in Vegas once
It was a hermaphrodite I guess. Here's the story from the Toledo Blade...
Monster antlered deer surprises successful bowhunter
Bowhunter Rick Willard has bagged a monster buck in western Lucas County. Except that he didn't.
It was a monster antlered doe. Well, sort of. Here's the story:
It was a huge animal. Nine long-tined points, but strangely still in velvet, right in these early stages of the rut, or breeding season.
The deer scaled at 260 pounds, field-dressed, meaning it weighed about 330 on the hoof. It was 25 inches around the neck, under the chin. The unhardened, unpolished antlers were 22 inches wide at the outside, about seven inches around the bases.
Most unusual of all, the deer had an underdeveloped penis but no testicles, a vagina and ovaries, but no female teats or milk sac inside the chest, just a mass of fatty tissue instead. It was a rare hermaphrodite, an animal having both sexes.
Willard, owner of Capricorn Construction, was hunting on private land from a ground blind when the big deer approached. "It acted like a doe," Willard said. "But then I noticed velvet antlers." He took the deer with one shot from his crossbow at about 14 yards. "I had my son, Tristan, 8, with me."
But the boy had fallen asleep so soundly that he missed the action. In fact he was lightly snoring and that quiet "grunting" apparently drew the curiosity of a small six-point buck. "When Tristan woke up, he got to see a six-point," the hunter added.
Mike Reynolds, a forest wildlife research biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, confirmed that the Willard deer is a rarity, a hermaphrodite, possessing both sets of sex organs. One or two antlered does usually turn up in the state bag each season, and last year at least three were reported statewide out of an all-season bag of more than 200,000.
Such antlered non-male deer have chemical imbalances. "It probably had an overproduction of testosterone," said Reynolds. "It's an interesting one."
Last year he checked a nine-point antlered doe in Belmont County in the southeast. He said that a Pennsylvania study estimated that about one antlered buck in every 3,500 actually is a doe.
Ohio biologists first documented an antlered doe in 1957 and again in 1965. "In some cases both sets of reproductive organs are present - true hermaphrodites," said Reynolds. "But in others the male organs may not be fully developed.
"Antlered does commonly have velvet antlers that are not shed annually. Hardened antlers are less common in does because it requires very high levels of testosterone. Most antlered does have higher than normal levels of testosterone but the levels are not as high as in bucks. Velvet-antlered does may be fertile, but does with hardened antlers typically are not capable of conception and pregnancy."
Because of the size of the rack, it is likely that Willard's deer is older, having added
annually to its unshed antlers, inasmuch as most antlered does have smallish, spindly sets of antlers.
In any case, such rarities help explain why Ohio deer hunting regulations describe antlered or antlerless deer, not bucks or does.
Seems like I met her sister/brother at a show in Vegas once
11-07-2004, 10:15 AM
#37
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Idaho
Posts: 2,072
RE: 130+ 9point DOE
Guys, I think that deer belongs on the Jerry Springer show. "Does your daughter doe dress up as a buck in public" Reply, "Yes I have seen her raking trees and urinating on herself, she is evening leading her little brother to bait sites and teaching him to be receptive to the other bucks, I wish she would stop." In reality, nice looking deer though.
