One of the friendliest, and familiar faces in Massachusetts is the white-tailed deer. And it doesn’t matter when or where we might see one standing alone in a greened-up field, slinking silently through the shadows of a quiet forest, or darting across the road with other deer following, the sight of a white-tailed deer, and most especially a buck, touches some central, but primal, part of our souls that is simply unexplainable. Whether you’re a hunter looking at a buck that made it through hunting season, or a nature enthusiast just trying to bring a part of the world they love a little closer. The bottom line is, seeing a white-tailed buck is special, and has many rewards for those who love them, and who enjoy spending time in their woods.
But then, there’s a dramatic event that occurs every year, when a white-tailed buck starts shedding, and then grows back again, a new set of antlers, which is an amazing phenomenon to say the least! Myself, and many others, know a little bit about the science that allows this to happen each year. But then, a picture shows up unexpectedly on a Massachusetts trail cam, like the one accompanying this column, and suddenly we’re scratching our heads, and the guesswork starts all over again, about, “how, can a buck like this, still have a set of antlers like that, standing upright and looking healthy in early January? “ Well, a phone call to deer and moose biologist, Martin Feehan, was all it took to educate me about the mystery of a buck, like the one pictured here, still sporting a large set of antlers in early January! But first, let’s touch on a few additional things that most of us probably already know!
While white-tailed deer are not the only animals with antlers in North America, they are certainly, the most widespread, and successful species of the deer family. Adult male white-tailed bucks, sport a pair of antlers which they shed and regrow in a yearly cycle. The amount of daylight can contribute to when a buck will start growing, and later, shedding their antlers. Older bucks can grow as much as two inches of antler each week in the summer, with a soft velvet layer that coats the antlers to protect them while supplying them with blood to help the antlers grow during the growing cycle. By mid- autumn, the buck’s testosterone levels rise, which causes the antlers to harden and the velvet to dry out and start peeling away. By now, the antlers have grown about as large as they’re going to get. They’re tough, hardened, and ready for mating season, and if successful, he’ll pass his genes on to future generations of bucks that follow. But deer biologist Martin Feehan explains it better, “As the breeding season continues and the rut sets-in, this usually signals the beginning of the shedding process due to a loss of testosterone with bucks seeking does, daily at times, during the peak of the rut! As the rut moves towards its finale in late winter, and the length of daylight shortens, a buck’s testosterone levels will decrease even more. And with this decrease comes a deterioration of the connection between the antler and the antlers base that attaches the antler to the skull. The antlers eventually fall off, or shed, as the connection weakens.” “But Martin, I asked, how soon will it weaken enough for the antlers to fall off?” And his answer was, “that depends! As the process of shedding goes into December, partially because of the length of daylight, the exact period that a buck loses his antlers varies based on the mildness of the winter and the nutrition level of his food source.”
Martin went on to say that “if the winter is unusually mild, unlike this year, and nutrition of the buck’s food source is high, which it may have still been when this picture was originally snapped, pictures like the one here are not at all unusual! And even though this buck still carries a very large rack, I’ve been receiving other pictures from all over the state, showing small and large racks that bucks are still carrying even now, which is a direct result of a combination of good food sources before bad weather really started to kick in, allowing the antlers to stay attached longer!” And folks, that’s information coming from a guy who knows exactly what he’s talking about.
In the meantime, I’m leaning in the direction that the shedding season must be close to being done by now! And as I write this, looking out my window into the cold frigid air, I can see no signs that winter is slowly moving into spring! So, I’ll be moving into the woods despite of that, looking for these antlers in the picture, and other sheds of bucks that I don’t even know are around here. Because there’s lots of competition for shed antlers in the winter, mainly for their precious calcium and other excellent minerals! So, with that thought in mind, I think my search for dropped antlers may start a little sooner, rather than later!
Joe Judd is a lifelong hunter and sportsman. He is an outdoor writer, seminar speaker, member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association, and a 2019 inductee into the New England Turkey Hunting Hall of Fame. Joe is also a member of the Quaker Boy Game Calls and Bass Pro/Cabela’s Pro Staff.