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Peaceful forest life with roe bucks, jays and passerines.

 

 

A good time to discuss the development of the antlers on roe bucks. The buck with clearly larger antlers had small antler knobs quite as the other one only three weeks ago (at the end of the text is a link to a video from January 27th).

 

A part of the young bucks still wear pencil-like stick antlers but these will soon be shed, so that the real antlers can start growing. For older animals the „manly pride“ reaches full size in March-April, for the younger in early May. The antlers are covered by the velvet during growth, a strange formation with a great number of blood vessels that nourish the antlers during growth. It has no similarity at all to the proper skin of the buck.

 

According to human logic the animals moving together in the winter-time herds should benefit from their antlers in fending off enemies; during that time the roe deer are very vulnerable. But nature has instead designated the antlers of the bucks for marking their early-summer territories, and for the mating-period flaunting because it rather seldom comes to serious tests of strength between bucks.

 

From the shape and size of the antlers the age and even the health status of the bucks can be judged. The commonly held belief that the number of antler prongs marks the age of the animal is not true. Truly beautiful antlers with many prongs are worn by strong healthy bucks of mature, age and that is a sight worth seeing. Three-pronged antlers are most common, their owners are generally four-year-old males but this is not a firm rule.

 

The development of antlers on antler-bearers is governed by two hormones: sexual and growth hormones.

 

Next time we will deal with the theme of antlers when the bucks start marking their territories.

 

January 27th:

http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/15699