LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — A mule deer buck that was a frequent visitor in various parts of Lewiston has died, but the mystery surrounding his strange antlers has been solved.

The Lewiston Tribune reports (http://bit.ly/1K8yioy ) the deer didn't shed his antlers every year like most bucks do. Some fans called him Brillo, as in Brillo Pad, because his scraggly antlers were constantly covered in the soft fuzzy tissue known as velvet.

Since 2011, the deer would appear in town every July and disappear again in October.

The deer, it turns out, lacked testicles and never went into rut — and that, biologists say, was the reason he never lost his antlers and they were always in velvet.

It's unclear why the deer died about a week ago. Residents say his ribs began to show, perhaps from an illness. But someone also reported recently hitting a deer.