We’ve received photos of some extremely weird deer at QDMA, but the ones I got this week from my friend Ryan Basinger in Alabama deserve a place in the Hall of Strange. Here was a buck with his head thrown back and mouth open in a wolf-like howling pose, in photo after photo. What is this buck doing? Is his head frozen that way? Here, see for yourself:
Immediately, I picked up the phone and called Ryan, who is a wildlife biologist with Westervelt Wildlife Services in Alabama, and he writes the Food Plot Species Profiles in Quality Whitetails magazine and on this website. With a little more information and more photos, Ryan explained what is going on. Photos of the buck with its head down, feeding on corn, are followed by the strange “howling.” Apparently, the buck has to raise its head to swallow. The behavior is seen over and over, in dozens of images captured across five days, September 14 to 18, on a camera run by Rolfe Singleton, a Westervelt forester.
Again, here’s a look, using two consecutive images taken one minute apart showing the buck feeding then swallowing: Continue reading – https://www.qdma.com/articles/what-is-wrong-with-this-strange-buck