The Antlers Are Shed-Part 2

In the previous post I described how the young whitetail buck lost an antler while I was present on Saturday morning. This was a golden opportunity to find the shed antler, but it was a very small antler and I am not the best at locating such objects. Fortunately it was an easy task. See if you can pick the antler out in the photograph below.


If you can't find it--look to the left of second bale, on the ground ever so slightly toward where the photograph is taken from.




In some cases animals shed the antlers simultaneously, but in most cases they do not. Years ago, I found a pair of antlers when we were planting clover seed in a Game Commission food plot in late winter or early spring, but in most cases I have found solitary antlers. The interval between loss of one antler and the other may be a matter of minutes, days, or weeks, but in my experience it is usually within a day or two of the loss of the first antler.



According to Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Note-28 by Chuck Fergus, "The antler cycle is influenced by secretions from the pituitary gland. Changes in length of daylight periods
and, to a lesser degree, temperature influence the hormone secretions from this gland".

While the rut is mostly over by early to mid-December, a modest of amount of activity does occur until well into the new year. Fergus reports that testosterone levels peak during the rut and slowly decline thereafter. The bottom line is that many bucks, which are usually the larger ones retain their antlers until all prospects of further breeding activity are over.

After doing quite a bit of reading on this subject, I have found conflicting information, some of which agrees with my personal observations and some, which does not. I can only conclude that location and other factors may play a large part in these discrepancies. Fergus sums it up well when he states, "The roles of age and nutrition in the length of antler retention are not fully understood at present".


Soon after the antler is shed, a scab forms over the pedicel. Eventually a layer of tissue forms over the pedicel, leaving a slightly raised bump. This will remain that way until the new antlers begin growing in March and April.

Camera Critters: Whitetail Deer-The Antlers Are Shed

Whitetail bucks shed their antlers each year after the rut. The buck featured in Wednesday's post still had both antlers as of Thursday morning. I was unable to check on the deer that evening, but when I arrived on Friday morning, I found that he had shed the largest antler.

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. I have seen bucks with antlers in early to mid-February and have heard of them still having antlers in early April, but it seems that most have lost them by mid-February.

I arrived shortly before dawn this morning and is it began to break day, the buck arrived and I could plainly see that he still had one antler. Within ten minutes it became light enough that I decided to set the cameras up and as I was doing so, I was astonished to notice that he now had no antlers at all.


An even closer inspection revealed the raw pedicel where the antler is attached to the skull. Had I been paying closer attention it is possible that I could have seen the antler fall off.

Stay tuned for the next post when we search for the shed antler.

For more Camera Critters photographs, click Here!