Antler

stag, Denmark Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on males, with the exception of reindeer/caribou. Antlers are shed and regrown each year and function primarily as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons.

stag, Denmark Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on males, with the exception of reindeer/caribou. Antlers are shed and regrown each year and function primarily as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons.

Etymology

Antler comes from the Old French antoillier (see present French : "Andouiller", from ant-, meaning before, oeil, meaning eye and -ier, a suffix indicating an action or state of being) possibly from some form of an unattested Latin word *anteocularis, "before the eye" (and applied to the word for "branch" or "horn" ).

Function

Protection against predation

If antlers functioned only in male–male competition for mates, the best evolutionary strategy would be to shed them immediately after the rutting season, both to free the male from a heavy encumbrance and to give him more time to regrow a larger new pair. Yet antlers are commonly retained through the winter and into the spring, suggesting that they have another use. Wolves in Yellowstone National Park are 3.6 times more likely to attack individual male elk without antlers, or groups of elk in which at least one male is without antlers. Half of all male elk killed by wolves lack antlers, at times in which only one quarter of all males have shed antlers. These findings suggest that antlers have a secondary function in deterring predation.

Antenna for hearing

In moose, antlers may act as large hearing aids. Equipped with large, highly adjustable external ears, moose have highly sensitive hearing. Moose with antlers have more sensitive hearing than moose without, and a study of trophy antlers with an artificial ear confirmed that the large flattened (palmate) antler behaves like a parabolic reflector.

Shed antler hunting

Gathering shed antlers or "sheds" attracts dedicated practitioners who refer to it colloquially as shed hunting, or bone picking. In the United States, the middle of December to the middle of February is considered shed hunting season, when deer, elk, and moose begin to shed. The North American Shed Hunting Club, founded in 1991¹, is an organization for those who take part in this activity. In the United States in 2017 sheds fetch around US$10 per pound, with larger specimens in good condition attracting higher prices. The most desirable antlers have been found soon after being shed. The value is reduced if they have been damaged by weathering or being gnawed by small animals. A matched pair from the same animal is a very desirable find but often antlers are shed separately and may be separated by several miles. Some enthusiasts for shed hunting use trained dogs to assist them. Most hunters will follow "game trails" (trails where deer frequently run) to find these sheds or they will build a shed trap to collect the loose antlers in the late winter/early spring. In most US states, the possession of or trade in parts of game animals is subject to some degree of regulation, but the trade in antlers is widely permitted. In the national parks of Canada, the removal of shed antlers is an offense punishable by a maximum fine of C$25,000, as the Canadian government considers antlers to belong to the people of Canada and part of the ecosystems in which they are discarded.

References

External links

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375931318 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.