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Where We Left Off:
One of the Winchester-Nabu estate’s red squirrel’s was attacked. Ollie and Gus followed up with Mollie to see how she was doing.
Dude, Where’s My Tail?:
In a previous summer case file, Oliver and Gus culminated the information we gathered about the local white-tailed deer and Jersey devil-deer herd. We haven’t had any confirmed Jersey devil-deer evidence since that astonishing case of Hanuel. After putting together this recap of the summer videos, we now have another character trait that could like one of our buck friends to being a hybrid.
Ollie and Gus have gotten close enough to the 8-point buck called Buckgammon to give him an observational, hands-off examination. They noticed that Buckgammon’s tail was missing! Was this just like the recent mystery of Rayne Sintail, the chipmunk with no tail?
Theory #1: Congenital
Inside the detective agency office, Ollie sat in one of his usual spots at the entrance to his personal space of the fort. He got comfortable with his front paws draped over the bacon toy. “We have to check our archives and see if Buckgammon has always been this way without a tail.”
“I think we would have noticed,” Gus said.
Nonetheless, I know I’m not the most observant of the bunch so I sat at my own desk and began scouring the 2022 photos since that’s our estimate when this deer was born. Fortunately, I had some good footage of the spotted baby fawns running around the yard like greyhounds on a track. Their tails were clearly intact. Just in case he was actually born in 2023, I checked those photos too and didn’t find any fawns without tails.
“We can rule out a birth anomaly,” I said.
Moving on to our next three theories would be nearly impossible to prove unless we found some evidence. If we don’t have any photos or videos, we’d have to try asking him directly or asking our other wild friends.
Theory #2: Rutting with Another Male
We’ve seen Bucky Barnes and Buckgammon practicing their rutting skills before the real season begins. They were definitely playing at this behavior of butting heads because there weren’t any moments that caused concern. They would stop and start. The cutest thing was when one of the fawns wanted to learn and Buckgammon gently began training them.
Theory #3: Predator Attack
By 2024, Buckgammon would have more points on his antlers making him easier to identify in summer and fall photos. I checked through the footage. That year, Lawrence W. Elk was a good size granddad. Even though other bucks have grown enough to have 8 points, I’ve never seen another one around here that seemed to get as old as he did. We assume he was hunted because he hasn’t been around in a couple years.
It took days to go through years’ of trailcam and personal photos looking for a buck. Mostly the does with their fawns get captured on camera. 2026 has been an outlier with Buckgammon and Bucky Barnes spending their summer days close to us. Unfortunately for our archives, by the beginning of September, the boys stopped coming around.
Human Predators:
We’re in Zone 5 for deer hunting. The earliest date on the hunting calendar is September 12.
Bow Season: September 12 – October 2, 2026; First deer must be antlerless (Does not apply to Youth License Holders). October 3 – October 30, 2026; Antlered or antlerless deer. Bag Limit: 5 antlerless deer and ONE antlered deer.
“Antlerless” doesn’t necessarily mean a doe. It can mean a young buck whose antlers haven’t grown in yet. According to my hunting expert consultant, no one would take a fawn because there’s not enough meat. As much as I want to have some faith in humans, I don’t. I didn’t want to think they would kill bear cubs and mothers or a beloved disabled bear who was doing just fine surviving; but, humans tend to suck and they have killed those.
Natural Predators:
We have coyotes, bobcats, and black bears. Of those, the bears are the largest, but they really don’t go after deer unless there’s a good reason. There’s a guide at WildlifeConservation.blog that sums up the reasons a black bear would be motivated to kill a deer. In general, it’s unlikely. Food scarcity would be a prime reason. With all the habit loss going on, maybe the bears do have more need for this type of predatory behavior than in the past.
This 2013 post at DeerAndDeerHunting has even more information, but it’s also looking at the bigger picture of the US. It also appears to be outdated. It claims black bears do the most predation on the deer, but that’s only true for newborn fawns up to two weeks old. Plus, the post includes mountain lions and wolves which we no longer have here. You can’t compare Colorado to New Jersey.
An updated report from the Institute of Environmental Research and Education states:
Are coyotes the only predator of deer?
No, deer have other natural predators including wolves, mountain lions, bobcats, bears, and even domestic dogs can kill deer.While fawns are more vulnerable, coyotes will prey on adult deer, particularly those that are injured, sick, or elderly. In areas where deer populations are high, coyotes may even specialize in hunting adult deer.
That same website points out that bobcats are unlikely to go after deer, especially an adult deer. It’s the same story as with the bears: the most likely scenario would be newborn fawns, injured or elderly adults that can’t get away.
If other prey sources, such as rabbits, rodents, and birds, are abundant, bobcats may be less inclined to target deer.
Considering our three predators—black bears, coyotes, and bobcats—the most likely predator of a deer is the coyote.
Theory #4: Protective Doe Attack
Ollie got up from his comfortable lounging spot and moved to his new pizza slice treat game. It took a couple weeks, but he’s gotten good at it. He moved the slices around to find snacks before continuing our conversation about what happened to Buckgammon’s tail.
“I’ve been watching the herd closely as you can see in the videos. Hazel has been chasing the others away,” he said.
Gus confirmed. “She goes after the bucks the most. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen them around lately.”
I turned away from my computer screen filled with research and notes. “Do you think Hazel could have bitten off Buckgammon’s tail?”
“Yes!” the cat detectives said in unison.
“So I didn’t need to do all that research?” I felt my facial muscles sag (even more) and eyebrows shift in towards each other. There goes two days of work. I wanted Gus or Ollie to confirm with Buckgammon personally, but by the date of this writing, he hasn’t been seen for a couple weeks. Perhaps they’ll be able to ask Hazel directly next time we see her.
Case Findings:
Through our summer observations of the wild creatures, we noticed that Buckgammon was missing most of his tail. For confirmation to be certain this wasn’t something that normally happened in the male deer, we compared him to Bucky Barnes and past photos. They generally have tails that are dark on top and white underneath which are frequently positioned curled around their butts. Their tails are raised for certain signals and while going to the bathroom.
Days of research showed that the deer are rarely attacked by the apex wildlife predators around here (bobcats, bears, and coyotes). They’re hunted mostly by humans, but there would be no explanation for how only a large segment of tail came off from any of the human-wielded weapons. It would have to be the type of one-in-a-million shot a professional archer or sharpshooter could make.
Then Ollie and Gus focused on the behaviors within the herd and pinpointed matriarch Hazel. She’s aggressively protective of her fawns, food, and personal space. By June of this year, Buckgammon already had his tail taken away. In this still image and video clip, you can see our buck with his growing antlers covered in velvet and only a stub for a tail more evident as he wags it and walks.
You’ll see at the 10:00 minute mark in the video below how bold and brazen Hazel is when it comes to wanting food. Buckgammon was eating the birdseed at Big Rock when Hazel showed up and chased him away. It seems clear to us that if anyone reached out to nab a buck by his tail, it would be a tough broad like Hazel.
We’re not sure when Buckgammon lost his tail, but it was definitely missing by June of this year!
Case Status: Closed