deer lose their antlers in california in winter.
deer lose their antlers in california in winter.
when do deer lose their antlers in california?
winter
only the stags have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter. antlers typically measure in total length and weigh , although large ones can grow to and weigh . antlers, which are made of bone, can grow at a rate of a day. a soft covering known as velvet helps to protect newly forming antlers in the spring. european red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a "crown" or "cup" in larger males. any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tine will grow radially from the cup, which are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer, such as corsican red deer. western european red deer antlers feature "bez" (second) tines that are either absent or smaller than the brow tines. however, bez tines occur frequently in norwegian red deer. antlers of caspian red deer carry large bez tines and form less-developed cups than western european red deer, their antlers are thus more like the "throw back" top tines of the wapiti ("c. canadensis"), known as maraloid characteristics. a stag can (exceptionally) have antlers with no tines, and is then known as a switch. similarly, a stag that does not grow antlers is a hummel. the antlers are testosterone-driven and as the stag's testosterone levels drop in the autumn, the velvet is shed and the antlers stop growing. with the approach of autumn, the antlers begin to calcify and the stags' testosterone production builds for the approaching rut (mating season).
red deer
the fallow deer and the various subspecies of the reindeer have the largest as well as the heaviest antlers, both in absolute terms as well as in proportion to body mass (an average of per kilogram of body mass); the tufted deer, on the other hand, has the smallest antlers of all deer, while the pudú has the lightest antlers with respect to body mass ( per kilogram of body mass). the structure of antlers show considerable variation; while fallow deer and elk antlers are palmate (with a broad central portion), white-tailed deer antlers include a series of tines sprouting upward from a forward-curving main beam, and those of the pudú are mere spikes. antler development begins from the pedicel, a bony structure that appears on the top of the skull by the time the animal is a year old. the pedicel gives rise to a spiky antler the following year, that is replaced by a branched antler in the third year. this process of losing a set of antlers to develop a larger and more branched set continues for the rest of the life. the antlers emerge as soft tissues (known as velvet antlers) and progressively harden into bony structures (known as hard antlers), following mineralisation and blockage of blood vessels in the tissue, from the tip to the base.
deer