When a buck fawn reaches the age of 9 to 10 months, antler growth is initiated from the pedicles and thus starts his first real set of antlers. The pedicles provide the structural base for the future development of antlers. Hunters are better informed these days but there is still a lot of misunderstanding about spike bucks. It was once commonly believed that, “Once a spike, always a spike.” But research indicates that this isn’t necessarily true. Rarely, the skin covering the nubs will break open exposing the boney pedicle, but these are not made of polished antler material and do not have an antler bur (coronet) at the base. In fact, many states define a legal buck as “hardened antlers above the hairline” to differentiate between bucks and antlerless animals. At this point they are not considered antlers. These small fuzzy knobs earn these animals the unflattering nickname of nub bucks. At this point, the ends of the pedicles are not polished and therefore not shed they remain dormant until the buck’s second spring. These pedicles appear as small fur-covered knobs during the fawn’s first fall. At about the age of 4 months, they experience a rise in testosterone which causes the growth of small platforms, called pedicles, on the skull. These are the animals we see at about 1 1/2 years old during the hunting season.Īt birth, male fawns have almost-imperceptible bumps on the frontal bone of their skulls. In the deer world, a yearling is an animal that has passed its first birthday but is not yet 2 years old. Farmers and ranchers commonly refer to the young of the year as yearlings. There is some confusion surrounding the term yearling and just exactly what young bucks grow and when they grow it. Let’s take a closer look at the animal that is all-too-often ignored. Spikes are perfectly legal in most places and a legitimate trophy to take home for steaks, roasts, jerky and sausage. We hear things such as, “It was the last day ” “I’m really busy at work ” “It was close to the road ” or simply, “I was hungry.” I pity the kid who wants to shoot her first deer and is told by a parent to wait for a bigger one, as if that is important somehow for ethical or conservation reasons. My own agency sends a post-hunt questionnaire that asks if you harvested a spike or a buck! This all leads to hunters feeling like they need to make excuses when they shoot a spike. The peer pressure to shoot a large buck can be tremendous in some circles, with friends talking about spikes as if they are not really bucks at all. This all gives the average hunter a warped sense of reality and causes nothing but disappointment when they return home. Stores display shelves of glossy-paged hornography magazines with large-racked individuals on their covers that most hunters could only dream of laying their hands on. There is an undeniable increase in the number of hunters who should be registered as “headophiles.” This perception is exaggerated by internet forums and social media, but today a hunter’s reputation seems to be more related to the content of a forum post than a meat pole. As an average hunter and a proudly self-proclaimed meat hunter, I’m not sure this progressive trend constitutes progress. Somewhere along this progression of successful conservation we might have lost our heads in the quest to mount theirs. It is only because of the abundance of deer that some now have the luxury to let a young buck walk. I suppose the shift in focus by some hunters from the hindquarters to the antlers is simply a by-product of our incredible success in conserving whitetails throughout all of their historical range. To the early hunter, the age of the deer was not important, except for the realization that younger deer tasted better. For most of our history of hunting deer, humans were interested in the meat and leather they provided. Deer hunters were not always so discriminating.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |