Why is this deer in Maine turning purple?

purple deer 1280.jpg

Photo pulled from WGME’s website, Credit to Tony Gedaro

A wildlife photographer spotted a buck in Cape Elizabeth, Maine looking rather peculiar.

The animal had a mass hanging below its jaw but more astonishing was that it was turning purple from its forehead down to its chest. The rest appears normal.

The photographer says that this could either be some sort of fluid build-up from heart failure.

“We’ve seen somewhat similar conditions, but cases like this are rarely identical to others, and there are a lot of possibilities. [It’s] impossible to know for sure without sending samples to a lab,” Nathan Bieber with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildfire stated.

A lot of comments and theories are being thrown out about the large mass, however, no one seems to have a plausible cause for the purple.

Related Stories
The California Farm Bureau introduces us to Aussie, its 2024 Farm Dog of the Year! Aussie’s proved nothing—not even the loss of a limb—can stop her from protecting her farm and family.

Story via WGME