A tailless buck

Jim (our farm caretaker) sent me these pictures from our farm yesterday. He spotted this buck inside the goat pasture (please note my farm security, two Great Pyrenees dogs over 100 pounds each, were sleeping nearby and didn't even notice. I can hope they did notice and didn't care because the buck was harmless, but I know better... more likely they were just passed out.)

He got quite a few pictures of this lovely buck in his summer outfit - and with a nice set of antlers growing. I'm not sure if it's a deer we've seen before or not, they look very different in the summer and the fall and it's hard to tell. I'm pretty sure this buck has been around before though, to not be worried about the dogs, or the barn areas, or Jim.

The strange part about this buck is, as you can see from the photos above, he has no tail. It doesn't look like he was born that way either, it looks pretty clearly like it's been ripped off, more than likely because he survived a coyote attack.

It's amazing the things we've seen, and that Jim was able to get these pictures. We had a doe with a completely broken leg who walked on three legs, we've had deer show up with huge bleeding wounds, and then there is our good friend Torn Ear, the big buck, who had an eye gouged out and now has only one eye. 

Nature is tough. But the animals are made to be strong.