One of the most magnificent parts of a deer–and a defining trademark that separates it from its other four-legged counterparts–are its antlers. Many people can’t help but wonder: How do they come to be?
Few animals are more majestic than a white-tailed deer sporting a massive rack of antlers.
Only bucks, male deer, grow antlers. Small buds begin growing between the buck’s ears around April or May. As the antlers develop they’re covered by a nourishing coat of blood vessels, skin and short hair known as velvet—this supplies nutrients and minerals to the growing bone.
When antlers reach their full size in late August or September, the velvet is no longer needed. The buck rubs his antlers against trees and shrubs to remove this thin layer. Only hard, shiny bone remains. In winter, as the mating season ends, the antlers become loosened at the base and drop off. Then rabbits and mice will gnaw on the fallen antlers for the minerals they contain. Antler size is determined by age, nutrition and genetics.
Near and Deer
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Deer live in timbered areas, especially at the borders of clearing, where they obtain the variety of foods they like; this includes woodlands adjacent to agricultural crops.
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Deer are browsing animals, eating the leaves, twigs and fruits of trees and shrubs, and the foliage of herbaceous plants.
- The peak of the mating (rutting) season is in November. Most young are born in late May or early June.
- A doe usually has twins; each weighs 4–7 pounds at birth. The young accompany the female until they are old enough to breed. About half of the young females in Missouri breed in the year of their birth. Other females and young males breed first at 1½ years of age.
- Deer are in the prime of life between 2½ and 7½ years of age. Deer can live for 15 years in the wild and 25 years in captivity.
Get even more details on deer in MDC’s Field Guide.
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