BuckTracker: You're Such A Freak!

I’ve covered freak whitetails in this space before (including antlered does and cactus bucks), but nothing—in my mind—that compares to the deer below. This whitetail arrived in a Maryland taxidermist’s shop recently and may very well be the strangest set of antlers I’ve seen.

This buck’s antlers seem to be fused at the base. Indeed, even some of the “kicker” and “sticker” points growing well above the antler bases have grown together, creating a kind of huge, single “horn” that sprouted from this buck’s noggin.

I know, I know…someone is going remind me that deer grow antlers, not horns…the difference being that antlers are shed and regrown each year. I get that, up, down and sideways. I also propose that this is one whitetail that—had he not been killed by a hunter—would have wished that the monstrosity between his ears would have remained firmly in place come late-winter. What would that poor fella have looked (and felt) like when he shed this antler? Antlers? Horn?