A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Odocoileus virginianus
A young (1 1/2 to 2 1/2-year-old) buck dubbed Dennis the Menace
Prairie grasses, near woods and farm fields
I first met this buck this fall when he showed up still in velvet. I couldn't figure out why the does acted so aggressive towards him until I'd spent an hour with him. Dennis would chase and act very aggressive towards their fawns and some of the younger does. The matriarch or lead female and her two daughters were constantly chasing him away. I've noticed that young bucks tend to act the most aggressively and are the least predictable of all the deer in the herd/s, not unlike our own teenage human males. **Also of note: Last year antlers were shed in late February-early March but we had a much warmer winter. This year all but three bucks, the majority, started shedding their antlers the first week of January. I'm curious now if the outdoor temperature/s plays a major role in when antlers are shed.
Spotted on Jan 16, 2013
Submitted on Jan 19, 2013
4 Comments
Maria dB-Thank you so much! Perhaps trivial but it made me curious and got me to thinking and wondering why the huge difference (two months) in shedding... Also, I hadn't been visiting them as regularly as in the past so some of them may have actually shed or dropped the last week of December this year.
ChristyHolland-Thank you! Perhaps but I thought, once the velvet was shed, no more nutrients or blood flowed through them... I was thinking that if you take hard plastic that, at room temperature would be very hard to break, and put it out in 9 degrees Fahrenheit or colder temperatures it turns brittle and shatters quite easily. Perhaps the same would apply to calcium or dried bone when subjected to the same or similar temperatures...? The area near the head where the antlers typically break off looked more red, bloodier (?), last year than this year as well so, perhaps in warmer temperatures some small amount of blood continues to flow into the base of the antlers? If there is still even a small amount of blood flowing into them, then your idea of conserving energy would probably apply. :-)
More interesting information - shedding antlers in early January is noteworthy!
Beautiful series, Janelle! Might be to conserve energy??