The buck has sotol in its mouth, but the whole plant picture you posted isn't sotol. Sotol has the saw-tooth along the leaf.

I was on a lease for a short time that the guys would dig sotol up and throw them in the feed pens. Deer love the roots, as stated above.

Having looked at deep Indian grind holes in rocks south of Marathon, and had yucca burn pits pointed out to me on my property, I've come to the conclusion that, unless you killed something, life sucked to be a Native American in central and west Texas.

They eat quite a bit of it in late winter, it is not uncommon to see a deer carrying around a patty or so with them. Several years ago we had a grass/brush fire and the hogs/deer etc. hit the cactus really hard, enough to kill much of it. Not sure if it was because the thorns were burned off or if it was jus the only thing left to eat till new growth came back.