Non-Typical Antler Growth in Deer

[huntwriter]

In another tread Walksalot and I started a discussion about the development of non-typical antlers. I have found the article I have been looking for tat describes the theories researchers came up with and the leads they follow.

I will post the article here for information and discusion amongst those that are interested in this subject.

[huntwriter]

Non Typical Antlers by James L. Bruner

Antlers come in all shapes and sizes. From typical main frame monsters to gnarly looking abnormal protrusions that seem to sprout and drop in every direction. One question that hangs in the balance is how some deer grow racks of perfect symmetry every year while others seem to take a different course.

There are many cases in which a buck may grow a non-typical set of headgear and I will address those here for our readers.

Trauma
Most everyone realizes full well that when a buck is injured during the antler growth stage that this can create an abnormality in its antler development. It is readily accepted that if a main skeletal structure has been altered through any means, ie: deer/car collision, that the buck will grow a visibly abnormal appendage from the opposite side of the conflict. Lets put that into something easily understood using the deer/car collision as an example.

Throughout deer country we receive many reports of vehicles hitting deer on our roadways every year. These reports escalate during peaks times of deer travel such as the rut. During the time of the rut a deers antlers have fully developed and in this case the trauma does not effect the immediate growth of antlers but, during the time of antler development, the story changes. In fact, a deer hit by a vehicle during this time of development stands a very good chance of irregular antler growth on the opposite side for that season if the collision has caused some sort of skeletal impedance. Point in case would be a deer breaks or fractures its rear left leg as a result of the accident. This deer survives and continues to grow antlers but on the opposite side of the injury, in this case the bucks right antler, would show visible signs that some sort of trauma took place during the development stage.

There is a lot of speculation as to why this occurs but nothing definitive has been documented. In several studies researches and scientists have performed their own tests in search for continuity towards these claims. In one of these studies it was revealed that amputation of a bucks leg directly correlated with abnormal growth of the opposite antler each time the amputation was performed. Sound extreme? If the amputation test would have revealed definite results it would be a major breakthrough into understand this phenomona.

Insects
During the time when antlers are in velvet they are extremly subject to injury of all kinds. Bucks take added caution to avoid conflict or contact whenever possible. Try as they may this is also a time where parasites and common woodland insects flourish in search of their next meal. Often on that menu you can find the blood-gorged antlers of the whitetail buck. Woodticks and insects that require blood to survive are commonly found on bucks that are in velvet. These are the most extreme cases where any type of malformity arises as the ticks themselves are so small in stature. Although not as visually noticeable they have been noted to disrupt the delicate nature of a bucks antlers during development and create mainly smaller abnormalities.

Age
Deer often take a couple years to develop into an animal capable of producing antlers of respectable size. Throughout their years they continue to develop in forward progression increasing in both body mass and antler size if enough nutritional intake is consumed to satisfy both requirements. In years where a buck may encounter slightly less than favorable food sources, or over-population becomes a problem, there will be a noted decrease, or possibly no gain at all in antler size from the previous year. This regression continues in subsequent years if in fact food sources are depleted and the deer do not alter their formula for survival. In any case the intake of nutrition will first feed the body before energy is routed towards antler growth. So what does this have to do with age?

Very few people will actually view a free-ranging wild buck that has grown past its prime. In fact more times than not this same person is viewing a buck that simply has an under-developed set of antlers which could be due in cause from anything listed here in this article. A buck that has aged past its prime are rarely viewed but certainly not invisible to the human eye.

As a buck ages its entire body changes to accomodate the process. Nutritional intake is used mainly to satisfy the requirement of survival and that begins with the body. As time progresses it becomes evident that antler development has declined as antlers are not actually conducive to survival. This reversal will nearly always account for a non typical pattern of antlers. Alternatively you may also notice other characteristics such as a swayed back, squinted eyes, and added white fur around the facial areas are present in deer that are declining.

Disease
There are numerous diseases the can effect a bucks antler growth and cause abnormalities. These diseases do not have to be specifically related to the antlers such as CAS or Cranial Abscessation Syndrome. CAS is actually a brain abscess which can be derived through bacteria entering a wound in a bucks delicate velvet stage of antler growth. Signs of CAS include swollen eyes, broken antlers with visible fluid seepage, swollen ankles, foot sores, and lameness. Pus may be observed at the pedicle and the eye sockets. In effect, if this occurs during the velvet stage there will be an abnormal growth providing the buck survives through the entire antler growth period. Further yet it does not take a direct antler related disease to create a non typical set of antlers. Any disease that creates a hormonal imbalance can have a direct effect on the resulting antler growth for that particular animal. On a sidenote which documents a twist towards antler diseases, humans have been using antlers and velvet to treat our own diseases for many centuries.

[huntwriter]

Contact
Contact during any time when a buck is sporting antlers can result in damage and thus creating a non typical set of headgear. For the most part this area will relate to those times when the event would be more pronounced which of course is during the antlers velvet stage.

It doesnt take much of a hit, knick, bump, or fall, to change the course during this time of development. A simple low-hanging branch or sudden slip can create the necessary contact and result in deformation. The possiblities are endless to the point that they travel back in time to intentional practices some of which may still be used today.

It was reported that in some countries such as Europe that land managers and private land owners would shoot fine birdshot at the deer. This practice was excerised while the deer were in their velvet stage of growth and vulnerable to contact. The idea wasnt to injure the deer but to force a non typical growth of antlers. It was reported on many accounts that this form of alteration created a sprouting effect of the antlers. Consequently this was the goal of the land owner as it drove a higher value towards the deers antlers for their abnormal proliferations. Contact that is both direct and indirect during development will create a high precentage that the same buck will retain visual evidence throughout its antler growth period.

Genetics
As with any deer genetics play a vital role in its future of antler growth as well as body development. Although this genetic blueprint can be altered through lack of nutrition, the basic benchmark has been placed well in advance. Whether or not a buck will achieve or succeed this benchmark depends on its own capabilities and the availability of necessary requirements such as quality food sources.

Speaking in terms of geneticism a fawn will derive half of its genetic traits from both parents. A large non typical buck breeding each year does not constitute that you will see a high volume of similar deer in the future. In fact, through obvious calculation and herd ratios, we see that more often a doe is produced. Taking this a bit further we find that even if the doe gives birth to a buck fawn it still does not mean that this fawn will grow to be a non typical buck even though she was bred by a non-typical. In terms of percentages it is likely that the fawn would indeed become a non typical but such is not always the case. A doe that has bred with a typical buck can very well produce a non typical offspring. This is due to the previous mention that the fawn will derive its genetic map relatively equally from both parents with a given traits towards one side or the other.

Further example. The doe that is breeding with the large typical racked buck was derived from a non typical father. This is a genetic trait that could be carried over from the female string of DNA and, if in fact her genetics traits are stronger or more pronounced in this area, it is quite conceivable to say that her offspring would carry a non typical rack providing of course it is a male.

Its a common notion by hunters to adhere to the fact that if they have a big buck running the woods where they hunt that those genes will automatically be passed on. Chances are that may happen but in actuality you would also need to have the breeding doe documentation to make that statement with any authority. In any event a breeding non typical buck will most likely pass his genetic blueprint through a receptive doe at some point and time.

Some interesting footnotes that also require noting is a bucks hormones. One might ask what hormones have to do with antler development in terms of non typical versus typical antlers so we thought we should wrap this up with a little added information on the subject.

We know that hormones are required to create antler growth. This correlates with a rise in testosterone that begins shortly after birth and increases throughout the coming months before decreasing in the early winter months. In some cases we find that there is a hormonal imbalance. A doe may grow an entire set of antlers but never shed the velvet due to a lack of necessary testosterone. The same can hold true for bucks who experience the same type of imbalance but the effect on them may be different as their levels of testosterone drop dramatically before the cycle completes. Bucks in this scenario may retain their antlers in the velvet stage and not shed during that particular year. Subsequently the following year will embark where the previous year ended. This creates new growth on top of old growth antler which commonly results into what is referred to as a cactus buck where the antlers are more of a gnarled ball than true tines. Truely a non typical mess of mass but equally unique in its own right.

[Iron-Head]

Very interesting Article.
Symon

[bigwhiteys]

Thanks for the article HuntWriter.

A Good Read.

Happy Hunting!
Carl

[GoatGuy]

Neat article -- some interesting information. Never thought about insects, but it definitely makes sense.

Any background on the author? More articles??

Anything about herds being fragmented and a lack of fresh blood - resulting effects????

Nice to read this sort of stuff.

[twoSevenO]

interesting article. Makes perfect sense too lol.

BTW, anyone besides me think those non-typical look just awesome? I think it gives those bucks a way better "bad-ass" image and i just absolutely love the look of them non-typical racks :) :)

Must be fun for people scoring them haha :P

[Walksalot]

Huntwriter, interesting read.

[Walksalot]

"According to Keith Guyse, longtime wildlife biologist and the present assistant chief for the Wildlife Section in the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, it is hard to pinpoint exactly why non-typical racks appear in a herd. But to a certain extent it is predictable as to when they appear.
"In a young deer herd that's just been introduced into an area, the bucks have a strong tendency to have similar formations every time they put on antlers. That's why you don't see many non-typicals in young deer herds," Guyse notes. "However, as a herd matures, you begin to see bucks in the herd with abnormal points.
"Defining a specific reason for the presence of non-typical racks is difficult," he continued. "These racks can be the results of genetics, a past injury, the health of the deer or the antler material he has growing on his head. Hormone levels of the bucks can also contribute to large non-typical palmated racks."

[Fred]

It could also depend somewhat on the mineral content of the area they live in, could it not? Fred

[huntwriter]

Any background on the author? More articles??

Anything about herds being fragmented and a lack of fresh blood - resulting effects????

Nice to read this sort of stuff.
The author is a well known and respected outdoor writer and deer biologist.

There is very little known about the factor of inbreeding, simply because it very rarely occurs in the wild and it is hard to study, unless you would tag every single animal and make a "family tree" of them. It could be studied in a captive herd but deer farmers avoid inbreeding. Where inbreeding does occur in the wild it is believed that it does not happen repeatedly over generations and thus has not a big influence on the herd.

[huntwriter]

"According to Keith Guyse, longtime wildlife biologist and the present assistant chief for the Wildlife Section in the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, it is hard to pinpoint exactly why non-typical racks appear in a herd. But to a certain extent it is predictable as to when they appear.
"In a young deer herd that's just been introduced into an area, the bucks have a strong tendency to have similar formations every time they put on antlers. That's why you don't see many non-typicals in young deer herds," Guyse notes. "However, as a herd matures, you begin to see bucks in the herd with abnormal points.
"Defining a specific reason for the presence of non-typical racks is difficult," he continued. "These racks can be the results of genetics, a past injury, the health of the deer or the antler material he has growing on his head. Hormone levels of the bucks can also contribute to large non-typical palmated racks."

Since the antlers are a bone structure that grows back every year new. It stands to reason that many different factors as you outlined them influence antler growth and defomations. As a deer gets older it only makes commonsense that it has suffered more antler growing impacts than a young deer and thus is more likey to develop non-typical antler growth.

To make an analogy to something I experienced. As a child I played with a drill and promptly drilled trough one of the fingers right at the root of the fingernail. I lost the fingernail and as it grew back it was slightly deformed (non-typical). Troughout the years as I got older the non-typical fingernail became more pronounced. Today it is a clrearly noticeable deformity. I guess it is the same with antlers, the older a buck becomes the more noticeable becomes the deformity and will create more non-typical forms. For the last four to five years I noticed that on my non-typical fingerneail a second fingernail grows out from the side of the nail bed which was not there in the years before. You could say that I grow another non-typical point. But there is another non-typical occurence on my fingernail. If I don't keep it trimmed town it will split right in the middle all the down to the root. This childhood accident has unleashed a chain reaction of non-typical growth pattern on my fingernail, even a second fingernail. It might be a similar chain reaction happening in non-typical antler growth, one defomity creates another one and so on.

[GoatGuy]

The author is a well known and respected outdoor writer and deer biologist.

.


Just wondering if you have any more articles and where he's from?

[huntwriter]

Just wondering if you have any more articles and where he's from?

He is from Michigan. Currently I do not have any more articles but still looking.

[MattB]

IMO-I think that antler growth, especially non-typical antler growth all depends on nutrition. The better the vegetation in terms of nutrients, the better the antler growth. Look in the record books at where a lot of book muleys and whiteys come from. A lot come from the wetter, nutrient rich areas of the province.

[Tank]

Since the antlers are a bone structure that grows back every year new. It stands to reason that many different factors as you outlined them influence antler growth and defomations. As a deer gets older it only makes commonsense that it has suffered more antler growing impacts than a young deer and thus is more likey to develop non-typical antler growth.

To make an analogy to something I experienced. As a child I played with a drill and promptly drilled trough one of the fingers right at the root of the fingernail. I lost the fingernail and as it grew back it was slightly deformed (non-typical). Troughout the years as I got older the non-typical fingernail became more pronounced. Today it is a clrearly noticeable deformity. I guess it is the same with antlers, the older a buck becomes the more noticeable becomes the deformity and will create more non-typical forms. For the last four to five years I noticed that on my non-typical fingerneail a second fingernail grows out from the side of the nail bed which was not there in the years before. You could say that I grow another non-typical point. But there is another non-typical occurence on my fingernail. If I don't keep it trimmed town it will split right in the middle all the down to the root. This childhood accident has unleashed a chain reaction of non-typical growth pattern on my fingernail, even a second fingernail. It might be a similar chain reaction happening in non-typical antler growth, one defomity creates another one and so on.


Whats the gross B&C score of that fingernail?

[huntwriter]

Whats the gross B&C score of that fingernail?

I have not let it officially score yet by B&C or P&Y.:mrgreen:

[huntwriter]

IMO-I think that antler growth, especially non-typical antler growth all depends on nutrition. The better the vegetation in terms of nutrients, the better the antler growth. Look in the record books at where a lot of book muleys and whiteys come from. A lot come from the wetter, nutrient rich areas of the province.
Nutritions do play a role, but as you can see in the article their are a lot of other factors and some of them are more influential than nutrition. But yes, nutritions are an important part to a herds overal condition.

[MattB]

Articles arent always 100% correct :wink: . A lot of the guys down in the states have seen a lot of changes in horn growth during dry years as compared to wetter years. The wetter the year the better the nutrition i guess?. But yes, there are a lot of other factors and a lot of good ones mentioned in the article.

[000buck]

:-) great read though it leads me to wonder what would happen if you hit one head on??? unusual antler would be an understatement if you had a horn mount of a rump lol:-)

[Walksalot]

Huntwriter a skull injury as the cause of a reoccuring nontypical antler makes sense.

[Iron-Head]

I heard that injury to the testicles can cause strange antler growth?
Symon

[tmarschall]

Articles arent always 100% correct :wink: . A lot of the guys down in the states have seen a lot of changes in horn growth during dry years as compared to wetter years. The wetter the year the better the nutrition i guess?. But yes, there are a lot of other factors and a lot of good ones mentioned in the article.

MatB..... The influence of available moisture on forage does not seem to be a direct correlation. No scientific studies that I know on this subject, but an interesting phenomena has occurred here in "drier" years. Antler development seems to be helped in these years. The theory is that the plants will grow, just not as much, so all the nutrients are concentrated in smaller packages. Deer have high protien requirements, and if the nutrients are concentrated in smaller packages, the deer will intake more protien... assuming he can find enough new growth to fill his belly. Like I said, it is just an observation with a theory as to cause... something to think about.

I think wetter years have their benefit when the moisture comes in the later months, so the deer come out of the winter months in better physical condition. Then the spring forage is not used to recouperate from the winter starvation and they can concentrate on growing new antlers. Here locally we had a very dry winter, the drought started back last June. We got 2 inches of rain finally yesterday.... more than I think we have had since June 05. It will be interesting to see what the antlers look like this year... things look bleak for sure. If there are big antlers... then more evidence for the "concentrated protein" theory for sure.

[thetroutkiller]

Was out the other day and saw a non-typical,the one antler was in front of it's eye. when the animal noticed us and started running the antler flopped up and down. Is this normal for the antler to be soft or was it broken?

[tmarschall]

More than likely broken

[endtimerwithabow]

anyone have any pics of non-typical mounts that they can post just to compare them to see the actual antler growth? and have you tagged a non-typical? what about moose and elk non-typical does the artical includ all ungulates or does it only apply to deer? just wondering!

[one-shot-wonder]

I know of one case, where my friend shot a moose because it was a 5 or 6 point palm on one side and a large spike on the other, there fore a legal bull. Upon skinning the animal he notice a small caliber bullet dislodged in the oposite shoulder of the spike horn, healed over.

This example seems to fit the situation where before being shot this bull was most likely symmetrical and once wounded developed a non typical antler formation.

I once shot a 2 point whitetail and found a 22 calibre bullet about a half inch inside its hide mushroomed up. However in this young 2 point's case his antlers were not affected. Most likely this buck was wounded that year and perhaps the following year the non typical formation would possibly follow..

Anybody else come across any similar situations?

[dana]

Genetics IMHO is the number one reason for Nontypical Versus Typical Growth. Injuries do cause some, but when you look at buck after buck after buck year after year after year, you get to see the genetics coming through. Compare shed antlers from sheds found over many years in the same area and you can see the genetic characteristics for that area. I've watched individual bucks for mulitple years and have seen the differences from one year to the next. Moisture, health, minerals all play a part in overall antler growth, both for typicals and nontypicals, but what makes a buck a NT versus a Typical is pretty much determined at conception.

Here's some pics of one buck I've watched for 4 out of 5 years.

Summer 2000
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/IMG_0378a.jpg

Summer 2002
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/IMG_0268.jpg
Summer 2003
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/WB2003b1.jpg


Summer 2004
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/IMG_0329.jpg

[Darren]

Dana, Did you see Widebugger last summer, or this summer??

[dana]

Haven't seen him since 2004. Probably is cat scat now.