When Oxford resident Dallas Nolin shot his deer Nov. 17, the General Motors worker thought he’d bagged quite the trophy buck.
With a tall rack crowned by six points, this buck, shot around Almont in Lapeer County, had it all, except the private parts to make it a buck.
That’s right ? Nolin’s buck was actually an antlered doe.
Needless to say Nolin was quite surprised when he went to field-dress his deer and it was missing its manhood ? or buckhood as the case may be.
During his 30 years of hunting whitetails, Nolin said he’d heard of antlered does before, but usually they have smaller racks.
‘When you’ve got a million-and-a-half deer out there, you’re bound to have a few that aren’t quite normal,? said Rod Clute, big game specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. ‘In my 30 years, I’ve seen a dozen (to) 15 of these (antlered does). Some of them have both male and female genitalia. Some of them are strictly female and it’s just a hormone imbalance.?
‘Since I’ve been here in Lansing, I’ll get maybe one or two calls a year from a hunter who shot one.?
Nolin’s gender-bending deer had small teats, but again to his surprise, it had to no milk sack (or udder) to feed newborn fawns.
It also still had ‘quite a bit? of velvet (a fuzzy skin) on one side of its antlers, however, the other side was more polished with only a little velvet at the bottom, according to Nolin.
Bucks normally lose their velvet in August or September when it dries and they rub it off, giving their new set of now-hardened antlers a polished look.
Racks on antlered does are typically smaller in size.
‘I’ve seen a really nicely-formed eight-point (still in velvet), but typically they’re three, four, five-point, tall, skinny racks,? said Clute, noting they’re usually what’s called a ‘pencil rack ? thin and more upright.?
According to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries website (www.dgif.virginia.gov), there are two types of antlered does.
The first are female deer with velvet-covered antlers.
‘These animals usually have normal female reproductive tracts and are capable of bearing fawns,? according to the website.
The second type is female deer with polished antlers.
‘These animals are actually male pseudo-hermaphrodites. They have the external genitalia of a female, but have male sex organs internally.?
Nolin said he found no evidence of any male genitalia when he gutted the deer.
It’s generally agreed that female whitetail deer who grow antlers do so because of a hormone imbalance ? abnormally high levels of testosterone in the doe’s body.
‘Researchers have noted that females can have a testosterone surge cause by a hormone imbalance, first pregnancy, tumors or degenerative conditions of the ovaries or adrenal glands. This single surge can cause the growth of antlers in velvet,? according to an article by Christopher DePerno and Johnathan Jenks on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website.
If a ‘doe? has polished antlers that means the deer got a second surge of testosterone which caused the velvet to shed. This type of antlered doe is not a reproductively functional female, but rather a reproductively malformed male.
Although antlered does are something of a rarity, Michigan’s DNR doesn’t keep track of how many hunters have taken over the years.
‘They’re unique, but not that unique in the sense that we don’t record those,? Clute said. ‘There’s no central coordination of that information.?
Approximately how many antlered does are believed to be roaming Michigan’s woods and fields?
‘There’s no way for us to put any kind of guesstimate on it,? Clute said.
Keeping accurate track of how many antlered does are out there would not be easy for several reasons.
‘Some hunters may not notice or even report that the antlered deer they shot was a female,? Clute said. ‘So that means that we’re not seeing them all.?
Also, ‘not every antlered (doe) will grow antlers large enough to be detected.?
‘They may just grow little three, four-inch spikes and may not get shot,? Clute said.
According to the DePerno/Jenks article, researchers estimated that one in every 1,000 to 6,000 white-tailed females produce antlers,
In Pennsylvania, researchers reported one antlered doe per 3,500 antlered deer. A 1985 study in Alberta, Canada found that eight in 517 adult does (or one in 64) has antlers.
Although he didn’t have any hard numbers, Clute said those odds seemed a little high to him.
‘I can’t refute them, but I certainly would not put Michigan’s numbers anywhere near that,? he said.
Clute believes the odds of a female whitetail having antlers in this state are ‘considerably lower,? given he’s only seen 12-15 such creatures out of the 100,000 deer he’s viewed during his career
‘That’s purely a guess based on the deer that we’ve seen over the years,? he noted.
In the end, the biological specifics and statistical odds don’t really matter to Nolin because he’s got what every Michigan deer hunter wants ? meat for his freezer, a nice rack to hang on his wall and one heck of a story to tell for years to come.