Deer Discovered with Upper Canines

Usually what’s on a deer’s head generates a buzz, but this unique buck had a very non-typical mouth with distinct canine teeth. Does this mean that future whitetails will become like sabertooth tigers and seek revenge on hunters as the ultimate predator? Not quite, yet the appearance of canine teeth is quite unusual and worth a closer look. Check out the details in this QDMA post.

Last December, Brad Wiley – QDMA committee member with the Upper Hudson River Valley Branch in New York – killed a big 4 1/2-year-old buck on the Otter Creek QDM Cooperative, of which he is a member. In this case, however, it wasn’t the age or the size of the antlers that made the buck such a unique trophy. It was the two upper canine teeth that Brad discovered on the deer’s skull.

Lower canines are present in all normal whitetails, but upper ones are rare. Of the eight front teeth on a whitetail’s lower jaw, six are incisors and the outermost two are canines. These canines have simply moved forward through evolutionary adaption to look and function like incisors. Deer feed with these front teeth by pinching a leaf or bud against their upper palate and tearing it away from the plant… [continued]

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