No, not the one where I keep my tractor.
This is the time of year when I look for shed antlers dropped by the deer that roam our woods and fields
February seems to be the prime month – although a few bucks may lose their racks in December, while others occasionally keep their hat racks into March.
Seems like a waste of perfectly good bone for white-tails to grow a new set each year - but that’s what evolution has decided.
The antlers of deer, elk, and moose are the fastest growing bone tissue known. A bull moose can sprout a pair of antlers that spread 6 feet and weigh 80 pounds in just one growing season. Our Iowa white-tails may produce trophy 10- to 12-point racks in 6 months.
Partial credit goes to testosterone. During the fall rut, or breeding season, bucks’ testosterone levels naturally are high. With the onset of winter and when females are no longer receptive, the hormone level decreases, and the bucks lose their antlers.
Before long, however, increasing daylight causes a slight increase in testosterone, which in turn triggers antlers to start growing once more. Other hormones kick in during the peak antler growth, which may last through August, with blood-rich “velvet” skin nourishing the antlers.
By Labor Day, that velvet has mostly dried up, and the bucks start rubbing their racks on saplings to rid themselves of the now useless tissue. That reveals the well-polished bone antlers we associate with mature buck deer.
As they challenge rivals for the right to mate, bucks use those antlers to spar with other bucks. Although bucks sometimes stab each other, or antlers may become locked together, the skirmishes typically are mostly shoving matches and bluster, with the clattering of antlers echoing through the woods. Deer hunters sometimes “rattle” artificial or real antlers to try to lure bucks close enough to shoot.
The deer eluded hunters on our place this past season - but the hunt isn’t over. Now it’s time to search for their antlers – before squirrels and mice seeking minerals chew on the bone. Nature’s recyclers at work.
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I'll keep my eyes open. I like to look by rubs
My husband made jewelry from some caribou antlers I brought home from the Northwest Territory (with the permission of the indigenous people). He sliced off circles with a saw, then put a tiny hole through the slices to put a ring to hang on a chain or earring wires. They are precious to me.