Not all deer antlers grow evenly. Demarais and Strickland said injuries, genetics or health cause most antler abnormalities. Identifying those causes, however, sometimes requires a necropsy, or internal examination, after a buck dies. However, injuries cause most abnormalities, and include pedicle damage, broken rear legs, or damage to a growing antler.
Researchers believe broken bones change the blood supply to the antlers, which causes antlers to grow irregularly. In other words, if a buck breaks its right rear leg, its left antler will likely grow oddly. Damaged pedicles can also cause abnormal antlers because the pedicle is the source of antler growth. Demarais said older bucks often have injured pedicles and abnormal antlers because they tend to fight more aggressively, which increases their opportunities to damage pedicles. Male deer typically rub their antlers against trees and other objects to remove the peeling velvet.
Because deer antlers take up so much energy, it is advantageous for many smaller deer to shed them as quickly as possible after mating season ends. The deer draw calcium and similar nutrients back into the system, so that the antlers become brittle and drained. A layer of cells grows at the base of the antlers, gradually severing their connection to the body and causing them to falling off.
Are Sunflower Seeds Good for Deer? Life Cycle of a Deer. How to Identify a Female Deer. Body Parts of a Deer. Throughout the season, the connections between the pedicles and the antlers weaken, and usually during the winter, well after mating, the antlers fall off.
In a matter of weeks, the cycle starts all over again. Depending on the photoperiod, or amount of sunlight during the day that a male cervid is exposed to, they will either be growing or shedding their antlers. Generally, the more sunlight there is, the more the antlers will grow. The change in light triggers the pineal gland to tell the pituitary gland to release more testosterone.
With the boost in testosterone, deer antlers can grow up to two inches per week, and in some cases, bull moose can put on a pound of bone per day during the peak of their growth cycle. Here is a general timeline of the antler growth cycle , although, depending on the area or species, the exact months may differ.
It is slow to start, growing from the tip out. June to July Mid Summer With the increase in sunlight, growth increases rapidly. September Late Summer As fall draws near and the days get shorter, growth slows. The antlers become mineralized, harden up, and blood eventually stops flowing to the velvet. The velvet dries, and afterward, it takes about 24 hours for a buck or bull to shed his velvet. October-December Fall to Winter The hardened antlers are now dead bone, and at this point bucks or bulls use them for the things that they do best during the rut: rubbing trees, fighting, showing off to females, and getting into all sorts of trouble.
January-March Late Winter to Early Spring Male cervids can only maintain a connection between the pedicle and the antler when testosterone levels are high, so as daylight hours dwindle, levels taper off, the connection weakens. Eventually, the antlers are shed, and without them, the pedicles are open wounds. Scabs form, and in a matter of weeks, antler growth begins again. Two fast-growing bones on your head are going to cost something, and for deer, elk, and other cervids this cost is huge.
The skeletal sites are replenished later through dietary intake. In other words, to grow their antlers so fast, whitetails and other cervids need to borrow minerals like calcium and phosphorus from non-weight-bearing bones. Seasonal changes and rainfall will affect the levels of protein in forage and, as stated above, supplemental feeding is often used to support antler growth.
What we do know is that, just like other animals, genetics are a two-part equation, and both the mother and the father play equally important roles. Genetics will determine the shape and size of the antler, and studies have shown that big antlers are hereditary more on this later.
Before a buck can be called a monster, a hawg, a toad, or booner, it has to survive a few seasons. Like the best things in life, antlers get better with time. A whitetail buck will reach generally reach his prime in four to six years , and for elk, it is more like eight to twelve. Age is one of the easiest factors humans can manipulate to see bigger antlers.
Regulations like point restrictions and deer camp customs like passing up smaller bucks can be helpful. Male cervids have two soft spots on their skulls called pedicles.
In the spring or early summer, two nubs form at the pedicles and are covered in a sensitive type of skin called velvet. The velvet is packed with blood vessels that rapidly bring blood, oxygen, and nutrients that the antlers need for growth.
The antlers grow from the tip, starting as cartilage and then calcify into hard bone as they go. During the velvet stage, cervids try to avoid contacting their antlers with just about everything. Injuries to velvet during antler growth can cause changes.
Once the antlers are fully grown, the velvet is cut off from the blood supply, and it dries up and dies before getting rubbed off by the animal. Throughout the season, the connections between the pedicles and the antlers weaken, and usually during the winter, well after mating, the antlers fall off.
In a matter of weeks, the cycle starts all over again. Depending on the photoperiod, or amount of sunlight during the day that a male cervid is exposed to, they will either be growing or shedding their antlers.
Generally, the more sunlight there is, the more the antlers will grow.
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