Do male deer (bucks) lose their antlers and then grow them back?

Question

My grandma has a lot deer by her house and one buck his antlers one day get really bloody and then another day they were really white, they looked like someone sprinkled flour on them. One of her neighbors told her that his antlers were going to fall off. Is this true?

Answer 1

First of all, yes, deer do loose their antlers every year. This happens around January or February. So, if the deer's antlers are looking "bloody" now(at this time of year), it is coming out of velvet. They are in velvet while the antlers are growing. Then they look almost bloody while the deer scrapes the velvet off in the trees.

Answer 2

Yes, they do lose thier antlers each year...

Excerpt from wikipedia... Antlers are the large and complex horn-like appendages of deer, consisting of bony outgrowths from the head with no covering of keratin as is found in true horns. Each antler grows from an attachment point on the skull called a pedicle. While an antler is growing it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone; once the antler has achieved its proper size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies. This dead bone structure is the mature antler. Antlers are shed after mating season and regrown each year.

However, the person who told your Grandma the antlers were bloody because they were going to fall off is wrong, when the deer first grow antlers they are covered with "velvet" when the antlers are done growing the deer rubs the velvet off causing them to look quite bloody, then the antlers stop growing and die and the deer is ready to use them during the "rut" (mating season) to attract mates. After they are done all mating they shed the antlers in winter or spring until they regrow them the next fall for the rut. Each year the antlers grow in bigger and better, the older the buck, the bigger the antlers. Some people even make a profit hunting out these discarded antlers, called "shed hunting".. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shed_Hunting

Porcupines also love to chew discarded antlers to get calcium and many of the antlers I have found have been chewed by them.

Answer 3

Yes. Some female deer have antlers too!

Answer 4

Yes, every year bucks lose their antlers (after mating season).


However, I don't think the antlers look bloody before they fall. They simply drop off.

Answer 5

yes, deer grow antlers every season. while the antlers are growing they have velvet on them which supplies them with blood and minerals to make them grow. once they are finished growing they become ichy and the deer rub their antlers against brush, trees, the ground, anything to get the velvet off. when they are exposed to the sun and allowed to dry they clean off and turn white.

Answer 6

You didn't say where you live at. In most areas the average deer antlers do fall off. However in some warmer climates they don't.

Answer 7

My husband is a big hunter and he says yes. I hate hunting! He says that many hunters use these shed antlers to lure other deer to them.

Answer 8

Yes, they fall off. One reason for the antlers getting bloody is bacause they fight other bucks for territory and for possesion of the does.

Answer 9

Yes, another interesting fact,in Caribou/Reindeer, both sexes have antlers.

Answer 10

yes, they grow them in the summer and they are covered with something that looks like & is called felt, they sharpen them up, use them for battle at breeding time & they fall off in the winter, then the summer starts the process over again. they usually get bigger as the buck matures.