Weird Deer Won’t Drop Its Antlers

Whitetail deer antlers are a marvel of nature. Some members of the deer family grow as much bone in a single season as is found in an entire human body. Part of this “miracle of nature” is the pedicle, which is the only instance of living material (the skull) being attached to non-living bone (the antler). As spring approaches and daylight begins to increase, the pedicle receives a chemical message and dies, allowing the bone to be “shed” from the skull. In this interesting post, an avid hunter caught a unique exception on his trail camera.

Keith Corley kept his trail-cameras out through winter and spring this year on his East Texas hunting land so he could watch the progress of antler shedding and regrowth while also keeping an eye on feral hog numbers. He ended up witnessing something he never expected to see. One buck in particular held onto his left antler far longer than any other – so long, in fact, that as of May 3 the buck has a nice start on a new right antler while the stubborn old left antler still hasn’t shown any signs of letting go!

Keith contacted QDMA through our Ask an Expert link and sent us two photos of this unusual buck. This article is our response, and Keith agreed to let us share his photos and the answers to his questions with our website visitors and QDMA members.  This buck isn’t the first to hold onto an old antler while growing new ones… [continued]

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