Antlers are
grown by the males of all species of deer, although reindeer cows also grow
them. They are used mainly as weapons, particularly during the rutting season
when stags fight for control of a harem of does. Antlers are not the same as
horns in that they are bony growths that drop off and are renewed every year,
unlike the horns of other mammals that are permanent features. The cycle of
growth, shedding and re-growth varies between deer species and their location;
the cycle described here is that of fallow deer in Great Britain.
Fallow deer
fawns are born around June, and in March of the following year male fawns
develop stalks, known as pedicles, from which the antlers will later grow.
Although antlers are cast and then re-grow, the pedicles are permanent
features. The fawn’s first antlers start to appear at the tops of the pedicles
in May.
The antlers,
which are straight, slender spikes with branches appearing only rarely in the
first year, grow rapidly and are complete by late July. The antlers are covered
by a hairy skin called velvet which contains blood vessels that supply oxygen
and food to the bone as it grows.
When the
spikes have finished growing the velvet shrivels, being discarded by the buck
as it rubs its head against tree trunks. By mid-August the antlers will be dead
tissue, but they stay in place until the following spring.
The first
antlers are cast in late May, usually one at a time with an interval of a few
days between the castings. There will be some bleeding from the pedicles when
the antlers break off, with scabs forming shortly afterwards.
New antlers
start to grow within one or two weeks, and growth is rapid, as with the
original pair. However, by early July the second pair will show signs of
branching into two “tines” on each antler, one pointing forwards and the other
backwards. The forward-facing tine will only grow a small amount, developing
into a sharp point curving upwards, but the backward-facing tine, known as the
main beam, will develop into a much more substantial structure.
Throughout
July and August the main beam will grow and several more tines will then branch
off it. The ends of the antlers will broaden out to form blades with spikes
growing off them, looking not unlike holly leaves in general shape.
In late
August, after the growth is complete, the velvet will be shed, as in the first
year, with the animal using trees to help rub it off. However, because of the
much greater amount of velvet involved, the result will look untidy for several
days as bits of bloodstained velvet hang off the antlers. Observers may think
that the young stag has been injured in a fight as blood drips off his antlers,
but this is not usually the case.
By the end of
August all the velvet will have gone and the antlers will be clean and hard,
remaining in place throughout the winter until the process begins again in the
following spring.
Each new pair
of antlers will be larger and heavier than those of the previous year, with the
blades becoming broader and the antlers curving upwards and outwards. A mature
buck has antlers up to about 20 inches (50 centimetres) in length. This process
continues into old age, so it is possible, up to a point, to judge the relative
ages of stags within a herd. However, it is difficult to determining a mature
stag’s age accurately from its antlers alone. There are also many variations in
size and shape between the antlers of bucks of the same age.
© John
Welford
