“To me, the deer looks like it crossbred with another species, like a donkey or a cow”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/photos_pennsylvania_miniature_deer.jpg?w=1700\")
<\/p>\n
The miniature whitetail deer has stumpy legs and a thick body, along with a blocky head and a short snout. Photo courtesy of John Dillard Jr.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A Pennsylvania man has captured several photos of a bizarre-looking miniature deer that\u2019s been frequenting his backyard in the Pittsburgh suburbs. The tiny whitetail doe caught his attention when it first showed up on the property along with several other normal-sized deer around March 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like a calf to me,\u201d John Dillard Jr. tells Outdoor Life.<\/em> He says it\u2019s a thick-bodied deer without any spots, which leads him to believe it\u2019s fully mature. Except the doe\u2019s stumpy legs are roughly a third the size of a typical whitetail deer. Judging from the photographs, the deer\u2019s mouth looks unusual as well. One photo, which shows symmetrical white marks around the deer\u2019s nose and mouth, gives the impression of protruding teeth that resemble the tusks of a Chinese water deer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dillard has lived at the property in Bethel Park, which lies just south of Pittsburgh, for around five years now. He says there\u2019s always been an abundance of deer in the area. (In fact, these urban herds have caused so many problems that last fall, the city launched a culling program<\/a> with help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and local bowhunters.) When he first moved in, Dillard\u2019s neighbors notified him that a herd of a dozen or so had been bedding in his backyard. Dillard owns a small dog, and its presence put an end to that but it hasn\u2019t kept the deer from jumping his fence during the daytime to browse in his yard and drink out of his swimming pool. He\u2019s had so many visitors that the deer finally knocked his fence down last fall.<\/p>\n \u201cThe deer are always jumping over the fence, and I guess some aren\u2019t that good of jumpers,\u201d says Dillard, who grew up deer hunting on public forest land in Allegheny County. \u201cAnd the only reason I believe [this deer] got in there is because she was able to walk over that fence. She surely wasn\u2019t jumping it like the others do.\u201d<\/p>\n Out of curiosity, Dillard reached out to the Pennsylvania Game Commission over the weekend to ask if they had any insight into the mini deer. A wildlife biologist emailed him back on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s likely a genetic condition but not much more can be said unless the deer is examined,\u201d the biologist wrote in an email. \u201cThe deer has survived just fine up to now and I imagine it\u2019s going to continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Miniature whitetails do exist, so the deer that Dillard photographed isn\u2019t totally out of the norm. Hunters come across these deer on occasion in places that are well outside the range of Keys deer and Coues deer \u2014 two whitetail subspecies that run on the smaller side and are native to Florida and the desert southwest, respectively.<\/p>\n Read Next:<\/strong> 9 Deer Diseases Every Hunter Should Know<\/a><\/p>\n In December, a Mississippi hunter tagged a \u201cdwarf buck\u201d<\/a> that was around the size of a mature Labrador retriever. The chief of staff of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife Fish and Parks told reporters that he suspected the buck\u2019s small size was likely caused by an abnormal chromosome. This chromosome issue could help explain the miniature deer that frequents Dillard\u2019s yard, but the native Pennsylvanian has his own theory. <\/p>\n \u201cTo me, the deer looks like it crossbred with another species, like a donkey or a cow. The head looks just like a calf,\u201d Dillard says. \u201cI work in oil and gas negotiating contracts with landowners, so I spend a lot of time hanging out on farms and I\u2019ve seen a lot of calves. It has that rounded wide brow, short snout. Looks a lot like a cow to me.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/photos_pennsylvania_miniature_deer_2.jpg?w=1325\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/photos_pennsylvania_miniature_deer_3.jpg?w=1325\")