Deformutilation: Antler's Shedding Velvet

Antlers are found on all members of the deer family(Cervidae) in North America. Antlers are true bone and are composed primarily of calcium and phosphorus and are deciduous. Deciduous means antlers are dropped or shed and grown anew each and every year. They grow from pedicles located on the frontal bone of their skull. The pedicles begin growing at a very young age in buck fawns and provide the base from which the antler will grow. Deer grow their first set of antlers when they are approximately one year of age. The skin or tissue that develops at the top of the pedicel reacts to hormones in the deer body and actually causes an antler to grow/develop. The most interesting aspect of this antler growth tissue is that, if it is surgically removed and grafted to another part of the deer’s body, an antler will grow there. Antler growth begins by a bud forming on the pedicle. Within a month the first tine will have begun to form or split off. Approximately a month later, the second tine will have begun to form. In just four months, the antlers are fully developed.

When the antlers are growing, they are full of nerves and blood vessels and are covered with a hairy skin covering tissue commonly called “velvet.”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.