Saw these two young bucks in the neighborhood today, and was curious that they both have ear notches. The best reason I’ve heard so far is that the bucks do a little scrapping, and ears take a bit of a beating. The notches are not research-related. I’m still open to other theories if anyone has ideas.
That's what I've always heard they were–I've seen such notches on White-Tailed bucks here in the Southeast, too…..L.B.