That cryptid post is still bothering me, so I just want to make a quick PSA for all of my followers: If you live in North America or parts of Northern Europe, and you see a "weird" deer (or elk, or moose, or reindeer), it is extremely likely that particular animal has Chronic Wasting Disease.
I see panic posts all the time on this website about how creepy CWD is (and it is creepy), but what I never see included in those posts are accurate prevalence estimates. We think that somewhere around 40-50% of all cervids are affected in highly endemic regions, and even outside of endemic regions, prevalence estimates still hover around 10%. That's 1 to 5 out of every 10 deer in North America!
If you see a "weird deer", or a solitary deer that's just acting oddly (lowered head, poor coordination, seems confused), do not approach it, even just to get a better picture! Stay away! Document where you last saw the deer, and contact your fisheries and wildlife department.
Also, don't mess with vehicle-killed cervids! I know vulture culture is a whole thing, but seriously, if you do not have proper equipment to be handling biohazardous materials, and you don't know which animal part you would immediately need to excise for testing (this is a pop quiz--and if you didn't immediately know the answer then you have no business harvesting roadkill), and you don't know where to take the tissues to be tested, don't fucking touch it! CWD-afflicted animals often lose their sensitivity to normal stimuli (like the lights and noises from a busy highway), and the chances that an deer that wandered into traffic and died might have latent CWD infection is....very high.
Also: CWD can persist in the environment for years, as it is very resistant to heat, radiation, and chemical disinfectants. In fact, even if the animal you want to harvest looks "totally fine", it might not be. CWD has an incubation period of about 3-5 years in most cervidae, and guess what? It's still infectious during this time period (especially if you want to, say, harvest the bones, antlers, or other specific parts or the carcass).
If you see a "weird deer", please leave it the fuck alone and contact your fisheries and wildlife department or your local public health authority. If you see a dead deer on the side of the road, call the animal control department and for the love of all that is holy, do not touch it.
Your friendly neighborhood infectious disease epidemiologist and cryptid lover who just wants all of their followers to be safe
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