Earlier today, I saw an episode of Deer and Deer Hunter regarding twin white-tailed deer conceived from two different fathers. This struck my curiosity greatly as they described the scenario that was played out. In a penned enclosure during rut, cameras followed a doe in estrus as she was being followed by a five and a half year old buck. This buck was described as the dominate buck in that area and in a brief time mated with the doe. Not long after, a younger buck came into the picture where the dominate buck and the doe were. This younger buck fought the older buck and came out victorious. The younger buck then mated with the same doe.
Around two hundred days later, the doe have birth to twin buck fawns. The researchers followed the two bucks around as they followed their mother hoping to see a distinguishing difference between the two. The researchers were hoping to see if some of the characteristics from the two bucks that mated with the doe were passed on in the two bucks. They were hoping to see that the two bucks came from different fathers.
By the second year, the researchers had come up with their answer. They believed confidently that the personalities and the antler rack formations of the two deer showed that they shared different fathers.
I know that the researchers for this show have studied a lot of deer through the years but I find it hard to believe that they can definitively say that these bucks were fathered by different bucks. I do believe that the situation can happen, but basing it off of personality and antler formation alone, especially only after only two years, isn’t enough. If they want me to believe that this happened here, I want to see a genetic test first then make conclusions after that.
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