What makes antlers grow

Identifying those causes, however, sometimes requires a necropsy, or internal examination, after a buck dies. However, injuries cause most abnormalities, and include pedicle damage, broken rear legs, or damage to a growing antler. Researchers believe broken bones change the blood supply to the antlers, which causes antlers to grow irregularly. In other words, if a buck breaks its right rear leg, its left antler will likely grow oddly. Damaged pedicles can also cause abnormal antlers because the pedicle is the source of antler growth.

Demarais said older bucks often have injured pedicles and abnormal antlers because they tend to fight more aggressively, which increases their opportunities to damage pedicles. Fractured beams or tines can heal and keep growing as long as the antler receives blood throughout the growing season.

Age, nutrition and genetics influence antler development. Tab will move on to the next part of the site rather than go through menu items. Photo via Shutterstock. It sometimes seems as if white-tailed deer grow antlers overnight. In reality, that's not too far from the truth.

Antlers, which are made of bone, grow quickly. They are one of the fastest-growing tissues in all of the animal kingdom. A white-tailed deer's antlers can grow as much as a quarter-inch per day, according to Popular Science. But that's nothing compared to elk and moose. Elk antlers can grow as much as 1 inch a day, and a moose can add 1 pound of new antler growth every day.

All animals in the Cervidae family grow antlers with one exception — the Chinese water deer, according to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Among animals that grow antlers, only the males grow the appendages, again with one exception — both male and female caribous have antlers. Male deer and other cervids grow antlers to attract mates. In a matter of weeks, the cycle starts all over again. Depending on the photoperiod, or amount of sunlight during the day that a male cervid is exposed to, they will either be growing or shedding their antlers.

Generally, the more sunlight there is, the more the antlers will grow. The change in light triggers the pineal gland to tell the pituitary gland to release more testosterone. With the boost in testosterone, deer antlers can grow up to two inches per week, and in some cases, bull moose can put on a pound of bone per day during the peak of their growth cycle. Here is a general timeline of the antler growth cycle , although, depending on the area or species, the exact months may differ.

It is slow to start, growing from the tip out. June to July Mid Summer With the increase in sunlight, growth increases rapidly. September Late Summer As fall draws near and the days get shorter, growth slows.

The antlers become mineralized, harden up, and blood eventually stops flowing to the velvet. The velvet dries, and afterward, it takes about 24 hours for a buck or bull to shed his velvet. October-December Fall to Winter The hardened antlers are now dead bone, and at this point bucks or bulls use them for the things that they do best during the rut: rubbing trees, fighting, showing off to females, and getting into all sorts of trouble.

January-March Late Winter to Early Spring Male cervids can only maintain a connection between the pedicle and the antler when testosterone levels are high, so as daylight hours dwindle, levels taper off, the connection weakens. Eventually, the antlers are shed, and without them, the pedicles are open wounds. Scabs form, and in a matter of weeks, antler growth begins again. Two fast-growing bones on your head are going to cost something, and for deer, elk, and other cervids this cost is huge.

The skeletal sites are replenished later through dietary intake. In other words, to grow their antlers so fast, whitetails and other cervids need to borrow minerals like calcium and phosphorus from non-weight-bearing bones. Soils with poor mineral content, make it harder for recovery, and in a lot of cases where soil quality is low, supplemental feeds help to make mobilization a little more efficient.

As stated above in the section outlining factors for growth, the only way to really dive into the role of genetics is to control the environment and nutrition of two or more genetically different deer. In tests, bucks kept in constant 12 hours of light and dark were unable to shed their antlers and grow new ones, and bucks kept in constant light grew and lost three sets of antlers in two years.

Growth of antlers typically begins in April in response to increasing day length. Antler growth begins by a bud forming on the pedicel. Within a month the first tine or brow tine will have begun to form or split off.

Approximately a month later, the second tine G2 will have begun to form. In just four months, the antlers are fully developed. During the summer months of antler growth, bucks live in reclusive bachelor groups and restrict their movements. What is first built is the structure or a frame or matrix. Think of pouring concrete; you must first build a form. That is what deer do.

During the early summer, deer antlers are soft to the touch or spongy. By late summer, as day length decreases, testosterone levels begin to increase, the form is filled, and the antler begins to harden. Finally the blood vessels within the antler itself are filled and lose their ability to nourish the velvet, and it dries up and falls off. The velvet is typically totally removed in a day, and some of it may be eaten by the buck.

In Virginia, most deer are in hard antler by September 15th. Contrary to popular belief, deer do not rub their antlers on trees just to remove the velvet. In any given year, an individual buck may make hundreds of rubs, Hard antlers remain on the deer through the peak of breeding mid November in Virginia until late fall or early winter. In response to continuing shortening of daylight and decreasing testosterone levels after the rut, an abscission zone forms at the junction of the pedicel and antler.

An erosion of the bone takes place at this seam and eventually the antler falls off, leaving a bloody depression which quickly scabs over. Both antlers may fall off at exactly the same time, or one antler may be held for weeks or months after the first antler is shed.