Antlers 
 
 Antler Abnormalities 
 
 While most bucks develop normal antlers, on occasion a hunter will run across a buck with antlers that a deer biologist might refer to as developmental abnormalities. Developmental abnormalities range from antlers that never leave the velvet stage all the way to antlers that are found on a doe's head instead of on a buck's. The wide variety of developmental abnormalties makes it difficult to identify the particular cause of a particular buck's (or doe's) abnormality without a detailed dissection or necropsy. There are just too many potentially confounding and overlapping circumstances in the wild for biologists to nail down a specific cause based only on a description or photo. 
 
 We do know that most abnormalities are caused by injuries such as damage to a buck's pedicle, damage to the antler during the velvet stage, or even an injury to a buck's hind leg. Damage to the antler pedicle or the skull's frontal bone is the most common cause of antler malformation. 
 
 Injuries to the pedicle and frontal bone may cause abnormal conformation and asymmetry. A presumptive injury caused (A) asymmetry and growth of accessory antler (arrow) and (B) asymmetry similar to the one on left, lack of a burr and malformed pedicle indicative of recovery from trauma (arrow; note the difference between left and right pedicle, the burr, and shape of the frontal bone above the eye orbit). 
 
 These injuries show up more often in older bucks due to their more aggressive fighting. Damage to the antler during the velvet stage can result in antlers growing in strange directions or weird shapes. 
 
 Example of a broken beam that maintained its blood supply, survived and hardened into an abnormal conformation. Photo Credit Brian Murphy and Mick Hellickson. 
 
 Damage to the growing antler tip in March or April can cause the main beam to separate into two shafts, one containing the traditional antler points and another which may or may not have antler points. Photo Credit, Magnolia Records Program, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and Mississippi Wildlife Federation. 
 
 The rarest damage-related injury is when a buck suffers a crippling injury to his hind leg and his opposite side antler grows abnormally. The specific cause has not been confirmed but alterations to the buck's walk, or gait, due to the crippled leg may alter blood flow or nerve stimulation, resulting in the altered growth of the opposite antler. 
 
 In addition to these injuries that can cause abnormalities in antler development, deer can also develop abnormalities due to problems stemming from internal, or systemic, problems, as well as problems stemming from genetic abnormalities. When a deer's antlers fail to transition out of the velvet stage, the cause is often a lack of testosterone. 
 
 Antlers may remain in velvet permanently if testosterone production is insufficient to promote hardening and velvet shedding. 
 
 This can either be brought on due to injury or a birth defect. Despite the fact these antlers never leave the velvet stage they do not continue to grow. On the other hand, too much testosterone can actually cause females to grow antlers. These antlers usually stay in the velvet stage; however, some "females" have hardened antlers, but these "females" are in reality males that only have the external "structures" of a "female". ||||| Amy Calkins was hunting near Mt. Spokane when she shot her first buck, but the buck is actually a doe, with one large horn stemming from the middle of its head, coining the name “Unicorn Deer” 
 
 When you think of a unicorn, your mind jumps to the mythical creature from fairy-tales and children's books, but for one Spokane native this creature is all too real. 
 
 About a week ago, Amy Calkins was hunting near Mt. Spokane when she shot her first buck, but as she got closer to the animal she was shocked by what she saw. 
 
 The buck was actually a doe, with one large horn stemming from the middle of its head, coining the name “Unicorn Deer”. Although this sighting is extremely rare, it has been seen before. Amy found that the horn occurs from a hormone imbalance in the deer. 
 
 “I was in complete shock by the whole situation. How could this [female] deer have antlers?” Amy said. 
 
 Amy's excitement in getting the new trophy quickly turned to concern when she realized that the deer with a horn was actually female. She compiled unedited photos and video in case anyone questioned whether the doe really had a horn. Out of all of her friends who hunt, Amy says none of them have seen anything like this. 
 
 “I felt kind of lucky. I even played the lotto last weekend,” Amy said. 
 
 Amy named her new prize “Pat.”
– You can start believing in magic again, because not only are fanged deer real, it turns out unicorns are, too. Well, sort of. In August, a hunter shot an elderly roe deer bearing a single, centered antler in the forests of Slovenia, reports National Geographic. It's not uncommon to find deer with just a "spike"—what a remaining antler is called after one is lost; even an injury to a buck's hind leg can cause an abnormality. But in this case, both antlers had fused into one, giving a unicorn-like appearance. This was a first for scientist Boštjan Pokorny, who confirmed the roe deer's fantastical and "untypical" deformity, which National Geographic notes was probably caused by an injury sustained as the antlers were forming, which is an annual occurrence. The roe deer lived to be quite old and was a little pudgy, leading Pokorny to infer his unusual deformity didn't hold him back in life. Meanwhile, on another continent, another hunter also recently bagged a "unicorn deer." KULR reports Amy Calkins shot what she thought was her first buck in Washington state in mid-October—except it turned out to be a doe with a single antler. Calkins posted photos on Facebook of the deer and its four teats, and she says she later learned that a hormone imbalance caused the unusual growth. Mississippi State University's Deer Lab notes that it's "difficult to identify the particular cause of a particular buck's (or doe's) abnormality without a detailed dissection or necropsy." It's unclear if one occurred in this case. (A unicorn deer was famously spotted in Italy in 2008.)