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It’s In Your Nature: White-tailed deer oddities and misfortunes

Published October 24. 2026 12:55AM

As you know by now, my passion for birding began when I was a youngster.

I watched them at the feeders I built and wherever I could take a hike. When dad got me my first binoculars, that added another aspect to my hobby. But in high school, with sports from August through May, my time afield ebbed.

About that time, though, I began hunting, and deer soon became another passion.

Dad and Wayne, his outdoors pal, would take me along in the autumn to spotlight deer locally, and sometimes even up to the Pocono Plateau. The fields along Route 903 sometimes fed dozens and dozens of deer. I was hooked.

I think the white-tailed deer is a beautiful animal. Its senses and physical adaptations always impressed me. When I reached 12, I began hunting, and have done so for the next 60 years.

Yes, I still hunt, but I spend more time with the camera close by. In fact, as stated in last week’s column, I climb into my blind even in August to get some pictures of deer in their summer coats and bucks still in velvet.

I have photographed a piebald deer. I also saw a nearly all-white buck for many weeks in 1965, but I didn’t have a camera then. My lenses have captured many deer, and with the popularity of trail cameras, I keep at least two supplied with fresh batteries to spy on deer when I am not in Penn’s Woods.

So, between my actual photos, the trail cameras and my observations, I have seen an untold number of deer. Each one, like a bald eagle sighting, is still exciting.

However, I have seen and/or photographed deer that have had injuries. At least a half-dozen times I have seen deer with broken legs. One or two have survived for more than a year, and one even had a fawn the following spring.

The last doe that I watched with a badly broken leg survived spring, summer and fall, although it was a struggle for her. However, after December, and through the winter months, I no longer had any photos of her. I believe it survived the hunting season, but my guess is coyotes were able to prey on a physically limited deer with less ability to sustain a long chase.

I have seen and photographed a number of deer having lost sight in one eye due to injuries from the forest or fighting. I will warn you that one photo in today’s column may be too graphic. Take a look at some unusual deer and some very unfortunate ones in today’s column, as well.

But you’ll best appreciate the deer’s beauty and adaptations by getting out there.

A special reminder: We are just about entering the deer rutting times. During the mating time, deer may be active all day long, and bucks, in the actual pursuit of females, throw caution to the wind; many cross highways and streets with their less-than-normal caution.

For your safety, and those dear to you in your vehicle, be very vigilant as you drive the next month or so. You will start seeing many more roadkills shortly. Deer are on the move, so slow down a bit.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Pennsylvania averages ____ reported deer/vehicles collisions each year. A. About 100,000; B. 40,000; C. 20,000 to 25,000; D. Between 6,000 and 7,000.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: That small yellow flower with clover-like leaves is yellow wood sorrel and not a clover variety at all.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com

A deer that is partially white is called a piebald deer. It is unusual in that only 2% of fawns born are this color. It is a recessive trait, and both the male and female would have to have the gene to have a piebald young. BARRY REED/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES NEWS
I have seen piebald deer and pictures of many others, but I never saw a piebald deer with just a white face. This photo was taken from a trail camera, and I only had pictures of it two or three times in a week and never saw it again.
Very ugly to see on a deer but seldom fatal are cutaneous fibromas. These deer warts are noncancerous, they can be spread from deer to deer and usually are not permanent. They are not that commonly seen. If the deer is harvested, the meat is safe because they are only on the skin (cutaneous). It’s officially called papillomavirus.
When the deer’s antlers are in velvet (the fleshy fast-growing tissue that makes the bony antler) they can get bumped, and in so doing can grow in unusual directions. This one grew down along the cheek.
This summer in Lower Towamensing Township I photographed this buck with an unusual growth. I contacted our former game warden Cory Bentzoni, who explained the oddity. Deer, in chewing browse, could injure the lining of the cheek. In severe cases, infections set in. If they were treated, it could heal. In the wild, unfortunately, the infection most likely will result in the deer’s death.
Three years ago on an October afternoon I photographed this 2 point (spike buck) as it entered a food plot to feed. A first year buck, about 18 months old, generally grows a small set of antlers. Being smaller deer, and with not so impressive antlers, they generally don’t get to breed because older, stronger bucks will intimidate them or outmuscle them. They then seldom fight for the chance to breed.
However, and this photo is graphic, a few weeks later, at the same food plot I photographed the same deer. When I downloaded the pictures to my computer, I noticed its serious injuries. I’m conjecturing that this buck did indeed do battle with another buck and the antlers gashed its snout and destroyed its eye. I never did see or photograph this deer again. But I do have other photos of buck that were blind in one eye and looked healthy. Did this one survive? Infection and poor vision certainly don’t bode well for it, though.
Most mature bucks have a point near the base of the antlers, close to the head, called a brow tine. The brow tines serve the purpose of protecting the facial area (eyes) from serious, or later fatal, injuries. This 18-month-old buck does have one brow tine.
Tags:
Barry Reed, Environment