Name: Mark (Last name kept private at request of witness)

Age: 60

Number of witnesses: 1

Location of Sighting: Missouri, 30 miles south of St. Louis.

Date of sighting: 1 Jun 2020

What you believe the creature was: Don’t know ... a deer-like animal with a trunk.

Message: “I was on a small road where the speed limit was 20mph. Was driving between two hills when an animal came out from the woods to my right. I took it first for a deer, but the coat was quite reddish— like Irish retriever color.

Then I noticed that it had a trunk. Not a long trunk like an elephant, but a trunk that hung maybe half a foot down past the lower jaw. The whole end of the mouth was hidden by this trunk. It also had large eyes, eyes that seemed almost to protrude. It stood on the road for a second, maybe thirty feet from my car, then it stepped into woods on the left and was gone.

All of this happened at mid-day in clear sunlight, not the time when deer are usually active.”

Hello Mark and thank you for contacting us! Your sighting of this strange creature is truly interesting as its one of those encounters where everything appears to be normal at first, but then your brain realizes that something is off with the creature in front of you and what you assumed to be just a run of the mill encounter changes in an instant. This happens often with those witnesses who report seeing larger than life wolves, birds, and mountain lions. But I can honestly say that this is the first one I’ve received involving a deer, and I am so happy it’s a thought-provoking one!

In doing research on what this creature could be, we have gathered a lot of evidence that this just may have been a common deer with a genetic mutation that affects both bone and skin growth. While we will be the first to admit that we are not the right people to attempt to write out a long drawn out explanation of genetic defects in hoofed ruminant mammals of North America, we can confidently say that we are a great choice to copy and paste a link that shows what types of genetic deformities these specific creatures can have.

The following link showcases an article written by the Quality Deer Management Association and shows off a few deer that fall under their classification of “Freak Deer.” While these specimens are truly bizarre and would be quite the sight to see, the ones I want to focus the attention on are the Whitetails listed as “Snubnose” and “Sideways Sniffer.” At first glance, these facial deformities appear to be somewhat trunk-like as they don’t resemble the common deer snout, that being straight and rigid. They appear somewhat floppy and longer than normal. If one didn’t know that the bone actually grew this way due to a defect, it wouldn’t be a crazy thought to imagine that no bone existed in that specific snout at all.

Because of the wide range of defect possibilities within common Whitetail deer in North America, we have no trouble believing that there may be a deer out there with a snout that not only grew way to long but also grew at a downward angle, thus appearing to look like an actual trunk. Is this the without a doubt answer to this mystery though? Of course not, and the reason we are able to say that is because of the existence of a creature known as the Saiga Antelope. A critically endangered hoofed and horned mammal that can be found in only one region of Russia, and three areas in Kazahkstan (currently no specimens exist within North America and have not been cared for in any North American zoo’s since the 1990s). These creatures, while not classified as part of the same family as deer, do share the same scientific order, that being Artiodactyla. This simply means that both of these hoofed creatures bear weight equally on their toes.

Now, we are not saying or implying that a Saiga Antelope is roaming around Missouri for some unknown reason and that it occasionally chooses to make itself known for whatever reason. We are just pointing out that there is a known creature that currently exists in the world that bears a striking resemblance to what Mark saw in 2020. This creature does not exist solely in the imaginations of Sci-Fi writers and monster movie makers, no. It currently lives among us today and has been surviving unaltered since the late Pleistocene. Plus, it’s worth mentioning that historical research and archeological evidence show that during the last glacial period, the Saiga Antelope existed in both Alaska and Canada. So history without a doubt proves that at one point, a hoofed and horned mammal with a trunk existed within North America. So, who’s to say that a new one might not exist here again?

It’s this simple question that drives so many to search for the creatures that science hasn’t yet discovered. It is what fuels us to constantly learn and discover and never stop looking. Because who knows when the day will come that we are able to prove without a doubt that yes, the creature that so many people doubted really does exist. It is real, it is out there among us, and we can prove it.

Thank you again Mark for contacting us and sharing your sighting! If anyone else has seen something similar within the state of Missouri, please let us know! And for those of you who are interested in seeing more strange deer that have been discovered throughout, check out these links below.

Meet 6 Small and Bizarre Deer Species and This Strange Buck Was a Throwback to Extinct Whitetail Ancestors.

-The Pine Barrens Institute

Image Credit: QDMA

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