Kelly Moore had been getting camera images of a nice buck on his hunting property for weeks, and when bow season opened, he headed out to hunt him. One cue the velvet-racked deer showed up, and Kelly’s bolt was on target.
As Kelly and his buddies admired the animal, they soon realized that certain parts of the “buck’s” anatomy were missing. They quickly determined the animal was a doe, which the Missouri Department of Conservation confirmed soon thereafter.
Source: KY3 in Springfield Mo
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Some background on does with antlers: Scientists say there are two types of antlered does. The first are females with velvet-covered antlers, like the one Kelly shot in Missouri. These animals usually have normal female reproductive tracts and are capable of bearing fawns.
As for does with polished antlers, they are actually male pseudo-hermaphrodites. They have the external genitalia of a female deer, but have male sex organs internally.
In either case, an antlered doe is extremely rare. Some scientists say that one in every 5,000 does might have antlers.
Maybe even rarer. Renowned Missouri biologist Dr. Grant Woods told me: “I’ve often heard the number 1 in 10,000 quoted as the frequency of does with antlers. I don’t know if researchers actually calculated that from check station data, or simply used that figure to illustrate how rare it occurs. Either way, a doe with antlers is a very rare event.”
