Whitetail Buck Sheds Antlers

Yearling Spike: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS L II @ 135mm-ISO 400-1/400 sec. F 5.0

Each year one hears about hunters shooting what they assumed was a doe, only to find on close examination it was a buck that had already shed its' antlers. Most whitetail bucks in our area shed their antlers in early February. I have seen bucks that just lost their antlers in late December and early January. but it was not until this year that I was present when a spike buck lost both of his antlers in mid-December.

The buck is a small spike that did not disperse from his family group this fall and I have seen him almost daily since he was a fawn.  I saw him late in the afternoon of December 16th, as I was setting the cameras up and he still had both antlers.  Imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw that one antler was missing.  I tried to photograph him, but before I could get a shot he ran behind some other deer and when he was visible again, both antlers were gone. I did get some shots of the area where the antler attaches to the skull which is known as the pedicle. I wish I had a closer shot, but it was not possible.  As it is the photo below is severely cropped.

Pedicle: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm F 4.0-ISO 200-1/2500 sec. F 4.5

Spike After Shedding: Canon 5D MK III-Canon600mm F 4.0-ISO 400-1/800 sec. F  5.0

There was a bit of snow on the ground and I searched for the antlers, but it soon grew too late to see well and I gave up.  It snowed more that night and the ground was snow covered until Friday when the ground was bare again and I found one of the antlers.

Shed Antler: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 17-140mm@25mm-ISO 200-1/60 sec. F 7.1

Shed Antler: Panasonic GH3-Lumix 17-140mm@140mm-ISO 200-1/40 sec. F 9.0

Sometimes bucks shed their antlers simultaneously or as in this case a few moments apart, but in other instances it can be days. The antlers in the photo below were found in mid-April of last year. They were evidently cast only a few seconds apart.

Mature 8-Point Rack 2012-Found In Mid-April

In the case of the spike, it is possible I could have filmed an antler actually falling off had I kept the video camera running and followed him from the time he appeared, but that was not to be.  It is possible to film antlers being shed,  but it has to either be a lucky accident and they just happen to fall off at the correct time or it has to be captured by an unmanned camera as humans do not have the time or the patience to keep a camera running that long.

Originally Published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

The Antlers Are Shed

Whitetail bucks shed their antlers each year after the rut. It seems that the smaller bucks in this area usually shed during Christmas week or somewhat later, with the largest often being among the last to shed.  This year only two of the yearling bucks returned after the rut and only one stayed long enough that I could document the shedding of his antlers.  He had both spikes on January 2, but when he appeared on the morning of the 3rd, the left antler was gone.

Spike Buck-One Antler Shed: Canon 5D MK III 500mm F4 -1/400 sec. f4.5-ISO 1000

He still had this antler on the morning of the 4th, but it was gone when he appeared in late afternoon.  I was able to photograph the raw pedicle with the 500mm F4, but the image is severely cropped to give it impact.

Raw Pedicle: Canon 5D MK III 500mm F4 -1/2000 sec. f4.5-ISO 400

 I have seen bucks with antlers in early to mid-February and have heard of them still having antlers as late as early April, but it seems that most have lost them by mid-February. This pattern has held true in my home area for several years, but the normal order of things seems to have changed at Shenandoah National Park.

I used to visit Shenandoah National Park to photograph whitetail bucks during the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend, and one always saw several mature bucks still carrying antlers, but  Larry W. Brown reports in a post on Flickr, Full Circle-Part 1 , that this is the second year in a row that the bucks have shed early.  I am not sure why the time frame on shedding has shifted.  One could  suspect that it was a side effect of the tranquilizer from the collaring program, but that would not explain that they also shed early in 2011.

Also be sure to read Larry's post Full Circle-Part 2 for more about the research program and a look at how visitor numbers plummeted in November 2012.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.