Look what dh found in the park!

Isn't that amazing. I'm such a nature ignoramous, I didn't even realise deer's antlers just fell off. Thanks for sharing.

Did you take it home? ?

Amazing find. A red deer?

Red. There are also a lot of fallow deer but their antlers are different.

What is even more amazing, isn’t it Witzend is that they grow that much each year!

Yes Fallow must be even heavier

Amazing, a lucky find.

Do they just have them in the mating season to fight off other males? I think I assumed they grew them at maturity and kept them for life.

New ones every year

The young males have tiny ones - they evident get bigger with each season. We’ve often noticed that we hardly ever see the really big stags until the autumn rutting season, when they’re very busy chasing off other stags from their ‘harem’, bellowing and often clashing antlers with rivals.

More than once we’ve seen a big stag with a lot of dead bracken festooned in his antlers - apparently it’s supposed to make them look bigger and more scary, but to us they look more like someone the morning after a really wild party!

Wow

We have lots of deer where i live but iv`e never been lucky enough to findi antlers.
Some people actualy pay good money for them.

I pay a fortune for dog chews from antler. You can sell this easily. Though I live in the Highlands never find antlers lying around as the ghillies pick them up.

Looks like half of a 12 pointer?

I’ve seen Fallow and Roe but I’ve never seen a Red deer.

Thank you for such a spirit raising post. You sound as if you live in a lovely part of the country.

How lovely to live so near to a Park where deer roam around. Lucky you !

Great find!

I'd love that as a home decorative item if it wasn't associated with hunting/killing (something I'm vehemently against). It would make a very interesting coat hanger.

As it has dropped off naturally it has no connection with hunting - and you could take the opportunity of telling anyone so who tries to criticise you for killing a deer for it.

I have one too! My late husband was a keen birdwatcher, and spent many a Sunday morning in Richmond Park. One morning he came home with this Fallow deer’s antler he had found, pleased as Punch!

Amazing - what a great find. We have deer munching on bushes in the residential home behind our back wall but they don't usually have antlers.

Doodledog

Do they just have them in the mating season to fight off other males? I think I assumed they grew them at maturity and kept them for life.

Antelopes keep their horns for life, but male deer shed their antlers once a year and grow new ones. Antlers are usually only present for a few months before being shed and, apart from reindeer, only occur in males (but female reindeer have antlers, too. Rudolph may be a girl )
"Antlers are paired, branched structures that are made entirely from bone and are shed annually.
Horns are unbranched, two-part structures with a bony core and covered by a keratin sheath (the same material found in human hair and nails), which grows from specialised hair follicles.
Antlers and horns also have different functions. While antlers are mainly used for mate selection during the breeding season (either to attract females directly or to deter rival males through display or combat), horns are generally used for social dominance, territoriality and anti-predator interactions."
www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/whats-the-difference-between-horns-and-antlers/

That’s interesting Witzend and informative Elegran, thanks both.
A nice thread.

tanith

Did you take it home? ?

Did you?