Whitetails, Acorns & Shed Antlers???

[Skychief]

We had a ton of acorns here in Indiana this Fall.

The bucks seem to be holding onto their antlers later than usual.

Could the great nourishment of this huge mast crop cause the bucks to shed later this year? :idunno:

Thanks for your thoughts, Skychief.

 

[Curt]

SkyChief I seen a buck with antlers as late as Mothers day back in the mid Eightes(1987)runnin with some does.They were no more than 50 yards from the back door while we were havin dinner. Curt

 

[Hoyt]

In the last few yrs I've seen and got pictures of deer with shed antlers in early Dec. and antlers on their head in mid March.

I pulled some trail cam cards a couple days ago and all but one out of about 10 different bucks had their antlers. The one had a half rack.

 

[Spikebuck]

I have seen bucks with shed antlers as early as the 1st week of December, and have seen them carrying antlers as late as April.

Everything regarding antlers this year seemed late. Normally it is rare in my area to see a buck with velvet past the first week of September. This year I saw numerous bucks still in velvet until well into September.

The science says that all this is driven by hormonal changes driven by daylight effects on the pituitary gland, testosterone levels, etc.

There is a very good article about this on the QDMA website that answers many questions on early and late shedding. On this particular question it says:

Again, photoperiod has a major influence on testosterone levels and thus the timing of antler casting, but other factors can impact them too. Nutrition is important, as bucks in good physical condition generally retain their antlers longer than those who are nutritionally stressed. Widespread early antler casting may signify a nutritionally stressed herd resulting from too many deer for what the habitat can support. This can be an annual event caused by harvesting too few antlerless deer, or a single event caused by a mast crop failure, prolonged flooding, extreme or prolonged cold, or some other environmental variable.

If bad nutrition causes early casting, I guess one can assume that good nutrition and health may sustain the testosterone levels a while longer and keep the antlers in place. Perhaps this is one of natures ways of keeping only the healthy, best fit bucks doing the breeding in later cycles of the rut for does unbred earlier. :idunno:

The entire article can be found at:
http://www.qdma.com/articles/causes-of-early-antler-casting

 

[Skychief]

Yep, I've been seeing most bucks holding onto both sides still.

I know there are anomalies every year with certain bucks, but, this is almost all the bucks around here.

Seems the hypothesis of great nutrition/health and shedding a bit later holds water then. :hmm:

Thanks for all the replies fellers.

 

[Tracy A. Potter]

We have been running cams for almost 10 years and keeping track of when deer shed,drop horns, rut times all that in several areas.

This last season was very normal good food crops,acorns, fruits and they all shed at normal times in the first couple weeks of September. That's about 70+ bucks not a lot but a good number for averages.

The main rut was on the early side this year even though all the pros and articles and moons all said it would be later. Can't fool Mother Nature it happens when it happens in different areas.

Our first buck that shed this year dropped on my birthday December 9th, he was in poor health and injured from the rut a 3yr old big 8pt. Most of the wore out and injured, down on there health bucks will shed in Dec. and Jan. around here. The rest will carry till mid Febuary and early March and it looks like most of ours have shed already last time I checked and pulled all our cams a couple weeks ago.

Right on time again but that's here in Kansas, not a bunch of snow this winter but it has been very cold. Plenty of mass crops to start the winter so they should be in pretty good shape.

Tracy