It's Raining Antlers?

As I was returning home from a walk last week I saw a sight which just made me stand there and laugh. The one antlered elk. Try as the pour guy might he just could not make the other one fall off. Each year around the middle of March our antlered friends, the deer, elk, caribou, and moose loose their antlers. A hormonal change causes their antlers to fall to the ground. Sometimes they both fall off at once and other times.... Well let's just say there are some funny looking elk walking around. Why would you want to loose your antlers each year you ask? Simple to win over the girls. Imagine that during a particularly rough mating season you smashed heads with another make of your kind and broke off part of an antler. Now, since the females of your kind look for antlers which are the same on both sides you have just lost your chance at mating.  

                                            Copyright Peter Zuzga

 However, since antlers fall off each year as long as the animal has not damaged the part of the skull where the antler grows next year his rack will come back good as new.  Antlers unlike horns are made from bone and are shed each spring. Within a few weeks our antlered friends start to regrow their antlers and while they are in velvet antlers act as a built in cooling system for the animal. There is blood circulating underneath the velvet. It is hard to imagine an animal growing an antler of this size in just one season (April-early September), but they do.  Antlers are the fastest growing bone known to man and can grow as much as an inch a day at the height of the growing season.

                                                                   My Final Antler

Their weight is pretty impressive too. A full grown healthy male elk can have a rack which weighs a total of 40 pounds. That's a lot of weight to be carrying on your head all the time.

Since I am on the topic of antlers why don't I tell you about some of the differences between antlers and horns.

Antlers	Horns
Made out of bone	Made out of keratin (like your fingernails)
Are solid	Are hollow in the middle
On an elk they can weigh 40 pounds	On a Bighorn Sheep up to 30 pounds
Shed every year	With the animal for life

Just remember if you see a shed antler out in the woods it is best to leave it where it is there are many small rodents out there which eat the antlers to get much needed nutrients to help them grow. Think of shed antlers as vitamins for wildlife.  Happy antler spotting.