I have been using trail cameras for over 15 years now, and it never ceases to amaze me what sorts of things they capture when people aren’t around. From predators stalking prey to animals fighting, breeding, or even napping, they give us a glimpse into nature that we don’t often get.
A recent SD card pull of several trail cameras on my hunting lease in Illinois revealed something that I’ve never seen before; a hairless deer?
A quick Google Search for “hairless whitetail deer” resulted in a variety of possibilities including lice, mange or something called “rain rot”. It also generated results for a “Hairless, Wrinkled, Alien-Like Deer” from 2015 that went viral when photos were posted online.
I took one look at the photos and immediately knew that’s the same thing affecting the deer in my photos. The article mentioned mange as the probably cause, but still left me looking for answers.
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To get to the bottom of this mystery, we reached out to Huntstand’s Brian Murphy who spent 22 years as the CEO of the Quality Deer Management Association.
This is a severe case of demodectic mange, cause by the mite Demodex odocoilei, which is specific to white-tail deer. The most severe cases, such as this, are typically seen in bucks at this time of the year.
When we asked Brian if the disease was fatal, his response was rather surprising.
Believe it or not, reports of mortality are fairly uncommon. However, deer in Northern climates like Minnesota are certainly at more risk than they are in Mississippi.
Can You Eat A Deer With Mange?
Yes! According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife website, the lesions are contained to the skin of the animal and do not affect the muscles. Once the animal has been skinned, the meat is edible.
The question is even if you could eat the meat from a deer with mange, would you??
