12/16/2023 0 Comments Elk antlers grow backAs the antlers grow to replace those shed last winter, they harden and strengthen into the formidable weapons a male elk or deer will use in combat to win the females in the herd for breeding. Elk velvet is a concentrated network of blood vessels and nerves that covers new antlers for around five months every spring and summer. But while it looks like a cozy covering, it’s actually more like a suit of armor to protect what’s growing underneath. Velvet (in animal terms) is the soft, fuzzy layer that covers male deer and elk antlers for a small window of time each year. If you know anything about rut, you’ll know that for Roosevelt elk and others in the deer family, it means sparring with huge antler clashes to vie for herd dominance.īut there’s a less audible part of the rut that’s just as visually striking – and is essential to all that antler clashing. Welcome to the rut, that breeding season for animals like the bison, elk, caribou, bighorn sheep and deer that call our Free-Roaming Area home. And then – a touch of deep, blood-filled red. The bony cores remain as hard antler ready for the ‘rutting’ season in autumn, when the stags are aggressive and combative as they compete for hinds. At the end of the rutting season, in early spring, the pedicle-antler junction weakens and the antlers are cast naturally.ĭeer velvet is a unique structure, because it is the only organised mammalian tissue that regrows completely, and it does so every year. Moreover it grows extraordinarily rapidly, and the rapid growth is likely to be regulated by pharmacodynamic substances that are either unique or that can be found in other tissues but are at particularly high concentrations in deer velvet. In Asia, the unique nature of deer velvet has no doubt contributed to its reputation as a powerful remedy.Graceful arched antlers. Velvet antler is very sensitive during this growth phase, and the male deer are protective of it and non-aggressive. Velvet antlers grow very rapidly, at a rate of up to 2 cm a day. As growth occurs, cartilage is gradually replaced by bone by a process of calcification. When growth is complete, the antler ‘hardens’ or calcifies completely, the blood vessels at the junction between the pedicle and the antler close off, and the skin, nerves and connective tissue dry, shrivel and flake off. The annual growth cycle of antlers starts in spring with the rapid development of a soft cartilaginous core from each of the two pedicles. This core is covered with a layer of connective tissue, then skin with a dense covering of fine hair, and the whole antler is well supplied with blood vessels and nerves. The male deer of most species develop a pair of antlers every year from bony outgrowths called pedicles at the top of the skull. In New Zealand, velvet antler is removed from red deer stags, wapiti (elk) stags and red/wapiti hybrid stags. Whilst hinds in oestrus preferentially seek the stag with the largest antlers, the lack of antlers does not impair a stag's ability to successfully mate a hind. Occasionally dominance is attained by a stag that exhibits the most intimidating social behaviours. The older stag resumes dominance upon the younger stag casting his antlers, despite neither of them having antlers at that stage. This is evident by the temporary exhibition of dominance by a younger stag when the elder, dominant stag casts his antlers. In respect of dominance, the stag with the largest antlers tends to be dominant.
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