Residents of a quiet neighborhood in Green River, Wyoming, are so used to seeing mule deer on their sidewalks, driveways and yards that they barely notice the animals anymore.
But Axle Nedgo couldn’t help but notice a young buck that showed up at his home this week. He had a strange-looking “club” antler on one side of his head that pointed almost straight down.
The strange growth is not a mutation due to radioactive contamination, a bizarre disease or anything like that. It is more likely the result of an old injury.
“Free entry into a good home”
The only thing that bothers Nedgo about the newcomer is that the buck will inevitably add to the annoying piles of deer droppings that he has to deal with.
He posted a tongue-in-cheek social media post about the buck, including a close-up photo clearly showing the strange antler growth.
“Free to a good home, someone get this mutant out of my yard, he keeps shitting everywhere and I’m sick of it. Lol,” he wrote.
“It was just a joke,” he told the Cowboy State Daily.
Nedgo likes the deer, which he says generally do not cause any problems – but he does at least take the droppings somewhat seriously.
“I work on my vehicles in my backyard. It’s gravel and there’s always deer poop,” he said. “I have to move it out of the way because I don’t want to be lying in deer poop while I’m working on a vehicle.”
“Rare, but not unique”
The buck is not a mutant, mule deer conservationist Josh Coursey told Cowboy State Daily.
“Clubs” or other strange deformations on deer antlers are usually the result of an injury that causes abnormal antler growth, he said.
Deer shed their antlers every spring and grow new ones in the summer. Each year the antlers are larger than the previous one.
It’s not clear how the Green River buck sustained the injury that messed up his antler growth, but shoving fights with another buck are the most common cause of such injuries, which are rare, said Coursey, the president and CEO of the Muley Fanatic Foundation.
“This is rare, but not an isolated case. Fights or scuffles with other deer can lead to injuries and antler growth disorders,” he said.
Living with deer
Nedgo said he sees deer on his property “every day” and they have been in town for as long as he can remember.
“I’ve been here all my life and there have always been deer in the city, so it’s nothing special to me,” he said.
He said the deer let people, including his daughter, approach them, “but they don’t let you pet them.”
They even made peace with his dog, he added.
“The dog and the deer have no problem. The dogs here bark at each other, but they don’t bark at the deer,” said Nedgo.
A Laramie city deer that frequents a cemetery does not share this tolerance of dogs. Cemetery workers posted signs warning: the doe will attack dogs.
Coursey said he would prefer the mule deer to remain in the wild, but acknowledged that there are native deer in many Wyoming cities and towns.
“Urban deer are a product of human development and the easy attraction of the artificial oases of parks, golf courses and landscaped gardens,” he said. “Urban deer have no known migratory fidelity that they learned from their mother. This creates sedentary deer that know no other landscape to inhabit. They are truly a product of their environment and what they know.”
The level of tolerance among communities towards free-roaming deer can vary, he added.
“This has caused conflict and led to a devaluation of wildlife in many communities until it is no longer the case,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at [email protected].
