Girls will be Boys & Boys will be Girls!
You regularly get to read Bushwear's own perspectives on all things hunting, but we're also delighted to bring you content straight from experts who carry unique insights in their particular field. We've enlisted the help of Iain Watson Author and renowned deer expert to help explain female Roe with antlers.
With every passing doe season, animals turn up which well….. aren’t quite what they should be! Roebucks with the genitals of both sexes, doe’s sporting headgear where none should be present. John Allan recently sent us this picture of a doe sporting a rather prominent set. So what are they and are they becoming more of a feature in our roe population. Back in the day animals and birds that displayed the features of both sexes were labelled as Hermaphrodites, today in our more enlightened times they are referred to as Intersex.
Doe with antlers and tush
Spend any time in the game shooting world and more than likely you will come across pheasants, which display the plumage of both sexes. More often than not hens showing colorful male feathers, so called “cocky-hens”. Among our four footed domestic fauna goats are known for exhibiting the phenomena. But amongst our larger wild fauna it’s in roe deer that it’s seen most often. With their infinite ability to grow the unusual and abnormal when it comes to antlers from multi pointed to perukes, oddities among bucks are almost expected but doe’s with antlers well that’s another matter!
It was once thought that doe’s with antlers were old or very old. Another belief was that the antlers they grew were small and always velvet covered regardless of the season. Yet as more have come to light this has been disproved. Female roe with clean antlers have been photographed with kids at foot, and animals still with their juvenile teeth, or with adult teeth newly emerged have turned up.
Theories abound to the cause, yet there is no single explanation for what causes one sex to develop the characteristics or the other. Genetics, disease, hormones and environmental influences all play their part. Recently it’s been established that in some animals the condition results from a chromosomal defect. Female animals have two xx chromosomes while males have one x and one y chromosome. Tissue tests on some antlered doe’s have shown up a small amount of y chromosome on one arm of one of the x chromosomes thus offering an explanation for the condition in that specimen. As far as boys becoming girls goes, animals that outwardly seem to be male have been found with both sets of genitals present. Mature adults lacking antlers other than a disc on top of the pedicle also turn up. Environmental impacts such as the spreading of untreated human waste, the impact of incineration plants chemical spillages have been implicated but no hard explanations have been offered.
Female skull with Antlers
As more and more of us have taken to stalking and as our roe populations have grown increasing numbers of intersex animals have turned up. If you are lucky enough of come across one, tissue samples are the key to improving our understanding of the causes. Collect label and freeze who knows you could be the stalker who collects the specimen that unlocks the mystery of why this one species exhibits the phenomena. However remember that a critical indicator of the sex in the roe doe is the presence of the anal tush. If you see this, regardless of antler growth remember it will be a female, wise to bear that in mind before you commit to the shot.