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strange problem with this deer
shoff14
Member Posts: 11,994 ✭✭✭
This is from ESPN website
Since posting my Tuesday blog about the whitetail deer found in Alma, Wisc. that sported unusually long hooves, I have been in contact with some folks close to this wild wildlife tale.
Jarrad Fluekiger, walleye guide and co-owner of The Main Channel Fishing Shop in Alma, e-mailed the photo of this strange-looking deer, along with some details.
Jarrard wrote that Jeff Rieck, a family friend, hit and killed the deer with his pickup one evening last week.
Folks around Alma have been seeing the long-toed wild buck for the past couple of years.
Landowner Curt Youngbauer said he's seen the buck in different areas in the past and it appeared to have some difficulty getting around. He said when he last saw the buck in the spring, only its front hooves appeared overgrown.
"When we asked the DNR about the unusual hooves they were as surprised and confused as we were," Fluekiger wrote. "They could only figure that either the deer found some high protein minerals or that the deer had some kind of bad gene."
My friend Mike Faw, prolific outdoor writer and editor of the Sports Afield Almanac, says he's only seen the malady in two other whitetail in his life.
"One case was nearly as severe and the other was less per hoof," Faw said. "When deer are afflicted, it seems to be all hooves. The deer also walk semi-normal and can run, but the hooves can make a distinct flopping noise that can be heard a considerable distance away. Neither deer that I saw had been confined or unable to walk for a time, so the excessive growth could not be explained."
How about our blog readers? Can you shed any light on this oddity of nature?
Since posting my Tuesday blog about the whitetail deer found in Alma, Wisc. that sported unusually long hooves, I have been in contact with some folks close to this wild wildlife tale.
Jarrad Fluekiger, walleye guide and co-owner of The Main Channel Fishing Shop in Alma, e-mailed the photo of this strange-looking deer, along with some details.
Jarrard wrote that Jeff Rieck, a family friend, hit and killed the deer with his pickup one evening last week.
Folks around Alma have been seeing the long-toed wild buck for the past couple of years.
Landowner Curt Youngbauer said he's seen the buck in different areas in the past and it appeared to have some difficulty getting around. He said when he last saw the buck in the spring, only its front hooves appeared overgrown.
"When we asked the DNR about the unusual hooves they were as surprised and confused as we were," Fluekiger wrote. "They could only figure that either the deer found some high protein minerals or that the deer had some kind of bad gene."
My friend Mike Faw, prolific outdoor writer and editor of the Sports Afield Almanac, says he's only seen the malady in two other whitetail in his life.
"One case was nearly as severe and the other was less per hoof," Faw said. "When deer are afflicted, it seems to be all hooves. The deer also walk semi-normal and can run, but the hooves can make a distinct flopping noise that can be heard a considerable distance away. Neither deer that I saw had been confined or unable to walk for a time, so the excessive growth could not be explained."
How about our blog readers? Can you shed any light on this oddity of nature?
Comments
But those hoofs would make some nice knife handles.
da bow man is right-its called slipperfoot. typically caused by a diet high in carbohydrates. more prevalent in areas where baiting and supplemental feeding is legal. There is a few paragraphs on the subject in d & dh nov. '05.
Interesting that it has a name. I have grown up on a farm with livestock, and never seen anything like it.