Stevens Point man bags a 13-point deer, then discovers it's actually a doe

Melissa Siegler | Stevens Point Journal

ROSHOLT - A day that began with a slow-going hunting expedition for Michael Wanta and his father turned into a day they won't forget.

Wanta and his father were hunting near Rosholt late in the annual gun-deer season Nov. 29 when Wanta saw in an open field a group of deer, including one with antlers that appeared a little off. Wanta said he fired his gun as soon has he had a clear shot of the animal he thought was a whitetail buck.

Approaching the deer, they noticed even more how irregular the antlers on the deer were. While examining the animal, Wanta said he and his father determined they were actually looking at a rare phenomenon: a doe with antlers.

Wanta said they were stunned when they realized what they had stumbled upon. He kept the deer and brought it to a taxidermist.

Typically, antlers on a doe will be covered in fur. But the deer Wanta shot had antlers that were completely bare.

"It was a strange day, but one to remember," Wanta said.

Lesa Kardash, a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said the DNR doesn't require people to report this kind of abnormality, so it's difficult to determine how rare it actually is for a doe to grow antlers or for a hunter to shoot such an animal.

There are a few reasons a doe might grow antlers. Sometimes a doe will have higher levels of testosterone, Kardash said, but typically the levels are too low for full antler development. The deer could also be a male with some female features, which means male genitalia could be hidden within the body, making it seem like the deer is a doe, she said.

It is also possible for a deer to have both male and female reproductive organs, Kardash said.

Wanta said they tried to leave as much anatomy in place while field dressing the animal and didn't notice anything particularly abnormal — other than the antlers.

Contact USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter Melissa Siegler at msiegler@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Marie2Melissa.

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