Deer antlers prized by both mice and men

I was headed back to the office in early afternoon one day last week, after a brief stop at home to give our Labrador retriever her mid-day walk. Halfway there, I approached the bottom of a curve that borders a cattail slough, which is separated by this road from the Mississippi River coursing through its brushy hardwood bottoms not more than a 150-yard rifle shot from my home. 

Hunter’s eyes and instincts are always dialed-in to motion, and well off the roadway on the inside of the curve I saw bounding movements that I recognized instantly as whitetail deer. Behind two smaller antlerless deer, which I took to be does, pranced a larger specimen whose head was crowned with a tall, wide rack. 

Distance, and the need to keep my vehicle on the road, prevented my being certain of the buck’s point count, but it was clearly at least a six-pointer; perhaps eight. What impressed me was not the points, but the rack’s width and height. I’ve seen numerous eight-point racks that were significantly smaller. If only a six pointer, perhaps this was a relatively young male with the potential to eventually carry a truly impressive set of antlers. 

With vehicles on the road behind me, and a scheduled meeting ahead of me, I was unable to slow down or stop to see what would be the next move for these deer. Quite likely they were heading from a bedding area in the cattails to the river bottoms to feed. 

I did not think about it at the time, but had this been a week or so later, I might have taken these whitetails for a threesome of does. At the very least, I might have had no evidence to the contrary. That’s because from about mid-January onward, whitetail bucks in Minnesota shed their antlers. Their chief purpose is to establish social rank among bucks, who sometimes battle competitors for the right to breed with receptive does during the rut. That period is now well behind them. With winter survival the chief priority, antlers are unneeded. 

A drop in the male hormone testosterone (yes, deer have it, too) coincides with the re-absorption of calcium near where a deer’s antlers connect to its skull. The point of attachment weakens, and eventually the force of gravity – or perhaps contact with a sapling, or other obstacle – separates antlers from deer. 

In early spring new antler buds will sprout from a buck’s skull in an area known as the pedicel. Antler growth will continue through the summer, fed by the soft, blood-enriched covering known as “velvet.” Growth is usually complete by late summer, and bucks’ antlers are free of the nourishing velvet covering by sometime in September. With few exceptions, the most impressive antlers are found on fully mature males that are in the peak of health. 

Until relatively recent times the bony antlers shed by deer were almost sure to be recycled by the smaller creatures that inhabit the whitetail’s world. Mice, squirrels and porcupines can be counted on to find and consume them for the important minerals they contain. We once saw this firsthand in our backyard when my wife had me install a shaft of antler as a perch on a bird house. The antler was soon reduced to a nub, and when one day we spotted a squirrel busily gnawing away at the remnant, we knew how it had happened. Unlike in human affairs, little goes to waste in the natural world.

Today, however, the wild rodents have competitors. Humans have taken on “shed” hunting as a winter pastime, and have even enlisted the help of man’s best friend – their dogs – in this quest. It’s well-known that dogs can be trained to sniff out things other than game birds, illegal drugs being one example. Another is shed deer antlers; there is even an association, and competitions, for dogs trained to hunt them. The driving force behind this shed dog hunting association is a long-time and respected hunting dog trainer, who perhaps not coincidentally markets a shed dog training kit for people wanting to get started in the activity.

Some hunters make use of antlers they’ve found for the technique known as “rattling,” which is intended to mimic a battle between two bucks. It’s reasoned that other bucks hearing the clamor may investigate, and perhaps present a deer hunter with a harvest opportunity. Rattling is not practiced by all deer hunters, but certainly has its successful advocates. Others seeking sheds may just like the idea of collecting antlers. Some no doubt end up as north woods-rustic décor; in garages or in basements if, not finding more honored sites of domestic display.

I can’t help but think that the small nongame wild creatures that consume deer antlers for their nutritional value are the best end-users for sheds. It seems to me they have a purpose more important than gratifying us. I don’t consider myself “Nature neurotic,” though I’m sure some who don’t share this view will advise me to “get over it.”  

It’s notable, however, that the National Park Service cautions visitors not to collect shed antlers of deer, elk or moose within park boundaries. Not just because national parks are, to use their words – “natural museums,” and collecting is illegal – but for the survival value they represent for other creatures within the parks’ ecosystems.

Antlers, grown and shed each year, are found on mammals in the wildlife family known as “cervids, which includes the numerous subspecies of deer, moose, and elk. Horns are found on mammals within the family known as bovids (which includes cows), examples being bighorn sheep, mountain goats, antelope, and buffalo. Their horns consist of a bony core covered by an outer sheath produced by specialized hair follicles, which harden and – with the exception of antelope – are never shed.  

Among we who hunt, antlers and horns have long been symbolic of trophy-level success. It’s a very unusual hunter who would not be excited over the opportunity to harvest an eight or ten-point buck, or a royal bull elk with six points per side. In our homes, in lodges, or in north woods bars and restaurants, a set of antlers can achieve virtual permanence. If shed by a deer, moose, or elk and left to Nature’s processes, they instead soon find their way back into “the circle of life.”