Pennsylvania Game News - March 2022 - 5

Some bucks - about 3 or 4 percent
annually, on average, based on examinations
at deer processors - drop theirs
in the midst of Pennsylvania's statewide
firearms deer season in December.
Others hold onto theirs until March.
Fleegle compared that to some children
getting their first tooth at 6 months
old, while others don't get theirs until
12 months.
" The answer is as simple as every
buck is different, " Fleegle said. " While
it is typical for most bucks in an area to
shed their antlers within a month or so
of one another, that doesn't mean all of
them will. Each buck has an individual
antler cycle and this plays a role in
when antlers are shed. This antler cycle
is independent of all other bucks and
is thought to be related to the animal's
birth date. "
Fleegle enjoys looking for antlers
with her husband and dog. She's found
as many as seven in a day, and even
what appear to be matched pairs.
Not every outing is that productive.
But successful shed hunting isn't
impossible either.
" Like deer hunting, it takes time,
knowledge, and experience, " Fleegle
said.
She offered a few antler-finding tips.
For starters, she likes shed hunting
in February and March best, provided
there's no snow, just because there are
more antlers available later in winter
than earlier.
When looking for them, she focuses
on the places deer hang out: bedding
areas, feeding areas and travel corridors.
Think food plot edges, agricultural
fields, swamps, conifer stands,
brushy hollows, benches, draws, creek
bottoms.
Sun-soaked south- and southwestMARCH
2022
5
ANTLER POTENTIAL
Not every buck has the potential to grow a
massive, 200-inch rack.
Antler size is driven by three things: age,
nutrition and genetics. Some deer, with everything
in their favor, will grow massive antlers.
Others deficient in one or more of those categories
won't.
Regardless, antler growth - on bucks big
and small alike - follows a predictable pattern.
According to researchers at Mississippi State
University's Deer Lab and Texas A&M-Kingsville,
male whitetails, on average, achieve about 30
percent of their individual antler potential at
age 1.5.
Their biggest jump in antler size comes the
next year. They hit 60 percent of their potential
by age 2.5.
Their antlers hit 80 percent of their maximum
at age 3.5, and reach 100 percent at age
6.5
The antlers on wild, free-ranging bucks living
longer than that - rare but not unheard of, as
research here in Pennsylvania shows - then
trend smaller due to the effects of old age.
That's with " normal " deer.
There are occasional exceptions.
Some bucks - with insufficient testosterone
production related to the loss of or damage to
testicles or to a birth defect where the testicles
do not develop - grow antlers that never come
out of velvet. They may retain them year-round.
Rarer still are antlered females.
Caribou are the only members of the deer
family in which males and females both grow
antlers. Why are they different? One thought is
that antlers might help females defend scarce
food.
But female whitetails with antlers do pop up
occasionally, with their racks a result of elevated
levels of testosterone. They otherwise act and
reproduce as other females.
Other " does " with antlers are actually bilateral
cryptorchids, or bucks where the testicles
remain in the body cavity; hypogonadals, or
bucks with atrophied or underdeveloped testes;
or hermaphrodites, animals with both male
and female sex organs. None of those deer
reproduce.
Pennsylvania Game News - March 2022

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