Another deer with eye problems also taken
By Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
A white-tailed buck brought into Double Nickle Taxidermy in New Braunfels for a European mount caught the attention of taxidermist Jon Wilson after it was skinned.
It had a fully formed third eye on the skull.
Wilson posted on Nov. 11, “Never have I ever… seen a deer with 3 eyes! What seemed to be an abscess at first was later revealed to be a fully formed eye under the skin! This will be a surprise to the hunter! We all had to go see it for ourselves today, nature sure is amazing!”
The deer had a large lump on its face, a photo taken from the hunt showed. The hunter and the shop assumed it was some kind of abscess or growth, but never expected an eye complete with socket.
While it’s not unheard of for two-eyed animals to be born with a spare, experts say it’s highly uncommon. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told McClatchy News that a deer with a spare eye is something that can happen, but rarely does.
“This is just a random anomaly (birth defect) and extremely rare,” the department said. “It doesn’t appear to have affected the buck.”
Wilson said they see abscesses occasionally but said this was “definitely the weirdest thing we have seen.”
While bucks with three eyes are rare, one-eyed bucks, especially when one is lost to injury, occur more frequently.
In Clay County, young Charlie Tweedle shot the buck known to the family as the one-eyed warrior on a low-fenced ranch.
“The buck lost his eye last year while fighting with Mama’s buck,” his father posted on TexasBuckRegistry. “We knew the weather would have them moving so we headed straight to the stand from school. After watching this old buck for 30 minutes before getting a clean shot opportunity, Charlie stayed calm and made a perfect shot!”
The 6.5-year-old 10-pointer measured 131 3/8 inches.
