Velvet-antlered bucks shot in West Michigan give hunters plenty to talk about

There never seems to be a shortage of things to talk about during Michigan’s firearm season.

Hunters love to argue about antler-size restrictions, the philosophy behind only shooting big ones, the baiting ban and whether the DNRE knows how to count deer -- dead or alive.

This year’s firearm deer season was no exception, but there was a new topic: intersex deer. Three were shot on opening day in West Michigan.

You might remember a story about two of the hunters, Jerry White of Allendale and Bill Yoder of Clarksville. Both shot velvet-antlered bucks. Yoder said his buck was a male that never fully developed. White said his deer had no female parts and its male parts were underdeveloped or not present.

White’s deer has been widely publicized as a “antlered doe,” which probably is not accurate, given the absence of female parts.

Biologists said it could have been a male despite what some called female-appearing eyes and muzzle.

Safe to say: gender-confused.

The third deer also was from Cedar Springs.

It was shot by Charles Navitskas. That one was reported to be not fully male or female.

I’ve worked this beat for more than 23 years. I’ve heard of the phenomenon but have never have seen a case -- let alone three.

What of it, though, other than the oddity?

Scientists say it happens.


“We know males and females have the same hormones in different amounts,” said Brent Rudolph, deer management expert for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment. “They can end up as antlered females if they produce enough testosterone to develop antlers. You can have hermaphroditic deer (both male and female parts) or deer that don’t develop enough to shed their velvet.

“It also happens if there is an injury. For instance, if a deer gets castrated by a wire fence, which happens regularly in the wild.”


Naturally occurring gender confusion can have genetic causes or causes related to the environment, said Dan O’Brien, a wildlife veterinarian with DNRE’s wildlife disease laboratory. There also are “pseudo-hermaphrodites” a condition, he said, that occurs more in domesticated animals. The world of cross-sexed deer, he said, “get complicated.”

There can be genetic anomalies and mutations that can occur.

It is freaky stuff, to be sure, and O’Brien said it is not common.

“I would think it is less frequent than 1 in 1,000 deer,” O’Brien said. “My neighbor shot one a couple of years ago, and we see them here at the laboratory, usually one a year.

“I have seen maybe a half-dozen in the (bovine tuberculosis) database out of 180,000 deer. They are quite rare.”

Yeah, but could three on opening day be a fluke?

“Probably,” O’Brien said.

That’s not to say chemicals in the water couldn’t cause a problem, as some have speculated. But O’Brien said that is not likely.

“If it was an environmental factor, we would likely see a higher number,” O’Brien said.

Deer might not clean off their velvet for hormonal reasons, according to O’Brien, none of which has anything to do with “intersex conditions.”

Those that do have genetic mutations tend not to pass on those traits.

O’Brien said reproduction is not likely.

You might imagine the talk in a few years if it were.

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