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Show 'lie ' N 4Bil:t- - - : " ' ' .. " '' & .5 . : '. :V ' : V " ' '. " , ;:' I -r : -' ? 1. I ' : ' !: ," .V.,:'.'"":" ' 111:: ll'l 111 ;:: "Is s 1 While the antlers on deer are beautiful and a literal "crowning" for the animals, they are more than just pretty. Deer use their antlers for fighting other deer during mating They may look like excess baggage, bag-gage, but nature has adorned most male deer with antlers for a very good reason according to Ranger Rick in Nature Magazine. They're handy as weapons in the mating season, serve as "air condi-uoncrs" condi-uoncrs" in hot weather and provide nourishment for other animals after they're shed. Antlers begin to grow in early spring, starting as soft, swollen pads on the skull, and lengthening into club-like structures the National Na-tional Wildlife Federation monthly reports. While growing, antlers are covered with a soft, brown-haired skin called "velvet." Right under this skin are many tiny blood ves sels that carry food and minerals to the growing antlers. While the antlers arc in velvet, they can be hurt very easily. A male deer in velvet is careful to jump out of the way of low-hanging branches. If an antler is knocked against a tree during the velvet stage it will bleed. Within four and one-half months or so, the antlers are full-sized. On the moose, full-sized can measure more than seven feet wide from tip to tip, and a weight of more than 45 pounds. They attain these impressive im-pressive proportions in just three to four months, making them the fastest-growing tissue known. Durine.matini or. ruttine. sea- season; they are "air conditioning "in hot weather and provide nourishment for other animals after they are shed. Hunters also use antlers to determine age. Deer Antlers More Than Just Dressing son a buck uses his antlers to fight other males. With a quick lunge, one male will attack a rival head-on and lock antlers. After a few minutes min-utes of punching and shoving, during dur-ing which pieces of antlers may be broken, the weaker male will usually usu-ally retreat, leaving the victor to mate with the female deer in his territory. Heavy as they arc, antlers arc helpful during hot weather. During the summer when a buck's antlcri arc growing, they act as an air conditioner con-ditioner to help get rid of extra body heat. 1 At full size, antlers harden beneath be-neath their velvet and the blood ...supply stops, The dead and dry vcl- vet peels off in strips, aided by the buck's rubbing against trees and bushes. The antlers are now bone-hard, bone-hard, with furrowed base and pointed tines, ready for the challenges chal-lenges of the mating season. When the mating is over the antlers suddenly drop from a buck's head, leaving only a pair of bony bases from which next year's set of antlers will grow. They cycle is the same with all or the more than 50 kinds of deer in the world except the high Himalayan Hi-malayan musk deer, which have mm rhU,rVCd lCCth 10 Pf0lCcl lhm Irom their enemies, and the Chinese Ss CCf,WhiCh havelng.shS |
