Hunter discovers large lump on buck’s face was actually a third eye, Texas photos show

A hunter recently bagged a buck with a strange secret under its skin, Texas photos show.

Double Nickle Taxidermy in New Braunfels was preparing the deer for a trophy mount when it discovered a third eye, “fully formed” on the animal’s snout.

“This will be a surprise to the hunter. We all had to go see it for ourselves today, nature sure is amazing!” the taxidermy shop said in a Nov. 9 Facebook post, sharing photos of the deer’s skull. (Warning: the photos may be disturbing to some viewers.)

The deer had a large lump on its face, a photo taken from the hunt shows. The hunter and the shop assumed it was some kind of abscess or growth but never expected an eye complete with socket.

The hunter requested a European-style mount, meaning only the skull and antlers were preserved.

“This is the conversation piece of a lifetime,” one person commented.

“Was it killed near a nuclear plant?” asked another.

While it’s not unheard of for two-eyed animals to be born with a spare, experts say it’s highly uncommon.

“This is just a random anomaly (birth defect) and extremely rare,” the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told McClatchy News in an email, adding that, “it doesn’t appear to have affected the buck” much during its day-to-day life.

New Braunfels is about 33 miles northeast of San Antonio.