Hi Mike: I recently shot this deer in Massachusetts. I’ve never seen or heard of a deer with a nose like this. Any idea what would cause this or how common it is? The deer didn’t have any other noticeable anomalies. The nose seemed to be completely normal except for the color. Was not swollen. Thanks, Karl O.
Karl, thanks for sending this. In my 40 years of studying, observing and writing about whitetails, I have never seen or heard of a deer with a solid white-tipped nose. I scoured the Internet for info and pictures, but found nothing.
I ran Karl’s pictures by a couple of America’s top deer biologists, men who have observed literally tens of thousands of whitetails, and seen every genetic freak deer known to man. Until now.
“That’s crazy, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Kip Adams with the National Deer Association. “It’s not a piebald because the hide isn’t white. It looks like the nose has frostbite, but I’m guessing that’s not the case. I don’t know what caused it.”
The buck did live in Massachusetts. I wonder if the white nose tip could be the lingering effect/color from an old case of frostbite last winter?
Renowned Texas biologist Mickey Hellickson has for decades netted and moved deer, and done countless surveys and studies of whitetails. Mick, who has seen and handled as many deer as any man alive, says, “No, I have never in my lifetime seen a buck like the white-tipped-nose buck. I’m guessing maybe the buck is a piebald, and the randomly located white blotch ended up on his nose pad instead of somewhere else on his skin?” But he’s quick to say that’s speculation.
I’ll keep researching. PLEASE if anyone has shot or seen a deer with a white-tip nose pad send me an email and let me know.
This much is clear. Karl has shot one of the rarest whitetails in America…perhaps the RAREST EVER!
