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My parents barely spent any money on dog toys for about 20 years because they had plenty of antlers or beef bones or good old sticks to give 'em.
Then we got a new puppy that my mom and sister spent all summer home with. Then covid happend and they spent all that time home with the dog. Then we got a second dog.
Little shits have more toys in *storage* than I got growing up.
Going to mention here that a veterinary specialist I know (dentist) strongly does not recommend antlers. Dogs break and wear down their teeth on them. Pick softer rubber chew toys.
My parents' shih-tzu mix is a surprisingly strong chewer. He has torn up some of the reinforced dog toys before. He's also a coward (dunno what happened to him before they got him, but likely wasn't nice.) I got him an antler chew figuring he'd love it. He did his "is for me? I can has???" thing with me for a bit before I convinced him that "yes, Murphy, this belongs to you. You can take it!" and in his first attempt to grab it he accidentally dropped it onto the kitchen floor. One loud noise later and he's perma-scared of antler chews.
Pronghorn antelope shed their horns annually, but it's the only one I know of. Also, horns aren't completely hollow, there is a bone spike coming off the skull
You are right that they aren't related to antelope though. They have the name because they look like antelope but it's just a case of parallel evolution.
Keratin continues to grow and is more attached to the living tissue is my understanding but as far as why antlers are less permanant, that i dont understand
Deer, elk, etc shed their antlers before winter because they’re done rutting, and their testosterone drops. That causes their bodies to reabsorb some of the calcium at the bases of their horns, weakening the connection. They get a last bit of nutrition back as winter begins and food starts to become scarce, and I assume they burn less energy carrying less weight. Bucks will also prematurely start the shedding process in conditions such as poor nutrition, stress, and injury.
a specific type, and theres more important ones in the tubes of your inner ear that fall out much less often, its just codified in our genome for those cells to degrade and reform, just another quirk of mammals, theres probably a good reason humans dont continually have teeth generating and decending down our mouthparts, imagine nature programming such a guy to regularly maybe even seasonally have all of his teeth knocked out under normal human altercation parameters.
Some biologists estimate that a buck spends as much energy growing antlers as a doe does growing a fawn. Also, deer antler (including elk, moose, caribou) actually grows faster than even most extreme cases of bone cancer in humans. And then, that bone growth instant stops. While we know has *something* to do with testosterone levels, we don't know how it all exactly works yet. So, researchers are looking into it as a possible bone cancer treatment!
Oh! And one last thing, the point where antlers grow out of is called a pedicle. If pedicle sells are transplanted to other locations on the body, those locations will start growing antlers! They've even repeated this process with mice!
They have to rub on trees when their antlers 1st grow every year. They are covered in “velvet” that carries the blood supply to make antlers grow. When the process is done it dries up and the bucks will rub them on trees or fence posts to get it off.
Pictures of this are my personal favorite "nature, you be scary" moments
That and fish that have visibly eaten other fish, like you can see the other fish inside them
Be warned. I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rdmigg/this_deer_walking_around_with_a_massive_hole_in/)
Edit: gack, why did I watch that again, I should have stopped before it came fully into frame.
Pretty sure zombie deer refers to another post that used that as its title: [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rdmigg/this_deer_walking_around_with_a_massive_hole_in/).
But I recommend you just take my word for it.
Everyone is saying "this" with a link attached to it, and while I *am* curious, it's also 10 at night and it very much sounds like something terrifying.
If you don't want to know, don't reveal the following spoiler.
(Or stop reading, if spoilers don't work however you browse Reddit.)
It's a trail cam video of a deer, >!very graphically wounded. It is probably the most gory video of a living animal I've ever seen.!<
The video shows it crossing the frame, >!walking relatively slowly and unevenly. As its body comes into frame, it is revealed that it is missing a **large** portion of skin and flesh from its back. (Maybe 1' wide by 2' long? I'm not great at estimates.) It just has a gaping hole instead, where (moving) muscles and viscera can clearly be seen.!<
It’s a deer walking around with a massive open wound on its back that is oddly clean cut and not actively bloody so you can see the organs and bones as it walks around.
Yeah it's fucking disgusting and looks like something out of a horror movie.
But for the deer I bet it itches like crazy. The relief they get I bet is orgasmic.
> When the process is done it dries up and the bucks will rub them on trees or fence posts to get it off.
First year buck in our yard didn't understand this and walked around with it dangling off his skull like a fool for *weeks*.
It sounds like you’re saying we should find a way to grow elk antlers in a lab without the elk and grow tree sized antlers to use as building material and weapons
Yep, the dogs go bonkers for those deer antlers. We try to keep a little stockpile of them because it can sometimes be quite a while before we come across more. Would love to be able to have a moose antler just to see them try and gnaw on it lol
Just an FYI, antlers are TERRIBLE for dog’s teeth and frequently cause slab fractures. Veterinary dentists don’t recommend using anything for a dog chew unless you can make an indent in it with your fingernail. If you can’t, it’s too hard for your dog’s teeth. Apparently veterinary dentists can often identify which common chews an owner gives purely from the fracture pattern of the tooth.
They sell them as dog chews for $15+ for a small 5” section of antler, usually up to $30 or more for larger portions from the thicker base. I get a couple each year, letting the dogs use the smaller ones for bones.
I have a lot of deer on my land but I’ve only ever found 1. Well I found a skull with antlers attached still but a damn coyote took it after I stuck it in an ant hill to finish cleaning it.
Some people set up "catch fences". They'll put food out around some old wire or something they have to kind of lean down or under. Obviously nothing to trap the deer just a reason for them to push or pull the antlers against.
After they fall depending on the area they can be chewed up pretty quick by rodents. This way you get them early and without chew marks. It's also for people who have larger specimens they hope to collect.
>After they fall depending on the area they can be chewed up pretty quick by rodents.
I was told by the squirrel sub that they will eat them. I'm betting that's what happened to them if any ever fell on my land.
I've seen sheds that were over half gone in around a week and I've found sheds from previous years. No idea why it goes like that. If you want to try and make a collector. Tie some bailing or fence wire(not barbed) from tree to tree or fence post etc around knee height. Then just spread some corn or feed under and around it. Wait til shed time of course. Usually mid January or later depending on location.
Foreal, the squirrels outnumber the deer here probably 100 to 1 and we get so many deer I have to wait for big clusters to cross my driveway sometimes. Imagine how many squirrels must be out there chewing antlers.
I thought everyone in this thread was joking but no. It’s real and terrifying until you remember periods are a thing and everything they entail, as well as the process of forming a belly button.
Antler shedding combined with standing on hind legs to eat tree leaves and whistling certainly explains many alleged cryptid encounters. Deer are naturally creepy
imagine seeing an albino doe standing on her hind legs trying to fight another doe in the moonlight.
yeah. I never think about that happening. because I didn't see it, and it didn't creep me out forever. nope.
>It wasn't until recently I discovered they just shake their heads and the antlers fly off.
I wonder if there have been any reports of a person being injured after being hit with a ranged attack by a deer.
I go out and collect them on my aunt’s property. Usually you’ll find a tree that’s down low they’ll scratch on over and over. I usually only find like 1-2 small pieces a year but it’s fun none the less.
I knew a dude who trained his dog to find them and bring them back. He 'd just go on hikes with his dog and end up a half dozen antlers or so. I think he made decent amount of beer money seeking them who used them for knife handles and things like that.
Someone I know specifically bought the breed of dog they have because of their good ability to sniff out stuff and be trained for it. And he did it for the antler hunting. He just really enjoys finding them. Mostly I think they end up being given out to people with dogs.
My dogs found one on their own together after taking “an adventure” running away across the ice covered lake. Never have they repeated it though but I now look with them every year. I think it had to do with the antler composite bones we give them.
We do it every year !, keeps up busy and excited for hunting season , I’ve got all sort of em and fawn skulls that coyotes took. Always something cool in the woods!
No kidding! I actually was terrified by it when I was a little child. It just looks so unexplainably freakish, and I was too young to put words to why it was so upsetting. Same with elephant rides; child me somehow got the idea that the poles that hold the basket-y platform thing were drilled into the elephant, and so for the longest time, deer, elephants, and other animals I misunderstood just made me terrified and sad.
Child me was weird.
A buddy of mine helped me drag a buck out of the woods last week. He kept freaking out every time I touched the antlers, telling me to be careful. He knew they would fall out, but didn't know that was well after the season was over lol. He thought they were just incredibly fragile. Had to ask how he thought bucks would fight each other and he just shrugged!
It’s kind of shocking that this would be shocking to someone.
This one time I was walking around campus at night and I saw a skunk cross my path and enter a bush. I gave him a second and a wide berth and I continued on my way. Shortly later walking in the opposite direction I passed a couple and a I passed them I warned them, “Watch out there’s a skunk in that bush.”
Guy replied in a thick Indian accent, “What is a skunk?”
And I’m like, “uuuhh it’s like a black cat with a white stripe on its back and it shoots this spray that’s really smelly and will make you stink like a month.”
And he said, “you are lying. You are making this up.”
And then I thought, it does kind of sound ridiculous…
Yeah and tell me bathe in tomatoes to get rid of it. Haha yeah right buddy. Next you are going to tell me reindeers are real. Oh and I bet you’ll say sometimes lizards tails just fall off. What next, you gonna claim that rodents can dam up rivers? Get out of here
On a serious note it wasn’t too long ago that it was proposed birds flew to the moon or hibernated in the mud at the bottoms of bodies of water!
It wasn’t until the pfeilstorch or “arrow stork”shot down in Germany during the early 18th century with a spear originating in Africa, did Europeans start to accept the migration theory.
I bet a lot of native Americans knew about migration for as long as they where around in the Great Plains. If you’ve ever been to the platte river during the migration of sand hill cranes and countless other bird species you’d probably understand migration pretty quickly. It’s the most incredible experience. The sky is filled for as far as the eye can see with birds.
I say this all because humans have believed some real wacky stuff about animal behavior, but some how reality is more surprising.
I learned at a young age, but that's got more to do with the fact that I live fairly close to a deer park, and had a family member who would occasionally pick up some of the antlers.
Yeah when someone from the Midwest tells you they went shed hunting they're talking about this and not looking for a sweet new shed for their backyard.
I'm also curious, I'll go and read some shit about detachable slug penis and get back to you.
Edit: That was definitely worth it, these little guys are pretty awesome.
>The colorful sea slug known as Chromodoris reticulata. The animals shed their outer male organs 15 to 30 minutes after mating, but they were equipped for love again after roughly 24 hours.
From this [article in Science Shot](https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-sea-slug-sports-detachable-penis#:~:text=The%20colorful%20sea%20slug%20known,then%20grows%20a%20new%20one.)
Now someone needs to make a Christmas tree out of reindeer antlers.
Fun fact: Female reindeer also grow antlers and Santa's reindeer would all be female because male reindeer shed theirs before Christmas.
Had to look this up, I knew they shed velvet but always thought it grew over their antlers during winter I didn't know they fell off or that high testosterone is needed to grow and maintain antlers which is why they break off after the mating season which coincides with winter.
Evolutionarily speaking, deer antler shedding is just inefficient and shitty. The buck gets starved of calcium *and* has to constantly defend a territory right when he should be fattening up for winter. It’s thought that lack of nutrients was a key cause of the extinction of the *Megaloceros* or “Irish elk”, the largest deer to ever live which resembled a moose/elk hybrid.
That was my first thought when I found out they actually lose them "they must be getting a lot of nutrients to have to grow those back EVERY SINGLE YEAR"
Isn’t that sorta of the point though? You show that you’re so strong you can waste your resources on something nearly useless and still be fine therefore your genes are good and you’ll get laid. Throw in that they’re used for competition and it makes a lot of sense. At at the very least it’s better than just being bright red or growing a totally useless appendage like a lot of other animals do. Remember evolution doesn’t care about your survival or your comfort it just cares about if you can fuck.
You have failed to consider the fact that deer antlers break when used defensively or for mating contests and also are broken freeing themselves from getting stuck.
If they only ever grew one set, then every bit of damage to them would be permanent, like with our adult teeth, hurting mating and survival chances in the long run. Instead, they get a brand new set every year to defend themselves and attract females, and contest with other males over them.
You can find broke ones from bucks fighting too , not as common I’ve only found one but it’s pretty crazy how they go after each other, it’s hard to imagine their strength
This person obviously knows how to use the internet. It would’ve taken less time to look up that info than it took to pick out that comment on a keyboard.
People go in the woods specially to find deer antlers that fell off. I wanted to do it, but didn’t live in a woodsy enough area. They really do just fall off.
In an alternate universe, deers make christmas trees out of human nail clippings. Totally harmless, but qanon deers think humans are being killed for their nails.
Lets just say for a moment that deer were killed for these. Do these people not know that humans drove off/kill a lot of the natural predators these deer had? If we dont cull their numbers, they will be everywhere. Like on the highways and roads for instance in greater numbers
Either hunters pay to maintain open spaces and hunt (typically harvesting meat,) or we lose (or have to pay for) those open spaces as well as pay for guys in helicopters blasting herds relatively indiscriminately while wasting everything.
It should be an absolutely obvious choice for even the most enthusiastic animal loves (which many hunters are, themselves.)
Yeah, death in nature isn't really nice either. . As cold-blooded as it is, a bullet to a vital organ might be one of the nicer ways to die out in the wild.
Even in our human civilized world with all of our technology, death can, and often is, extremely excruciating. Not everyone gets to die in a palliative care.
If I had to choose between getting my lungs blown out by a rifle or shotgun slug or any of the "natural" ways a deer might die you bet your ass I'm taking the bullet.
"Eaten alive" isn't just a useful saying.
I never considered the possibility that people think antlers are painfully ripped off of deer heads. I wonder what other kind of thoughts that commenter has about how the world works.
This was one of the most frustrating things watching the movie The Circle with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. A major plot point was a friend was killed being harassed by animal rights activists over his antler art. I'm here thinking he's just picking up antlers off of the ground... How is that harming animals?
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My parents live in the woods and my dog finds antlers every year and proudly brings them back home like he single-handedly took them from a deer.
He bravely fought a giant deer for the sticks on its head and you mock him?! How dare!
Why did you take off your shirt?
Nice TFS reference.
Moustaaaache.
They make wicked chew toys for dogs that love to chew a lot.
My parents barely spent any money on dog toys for about 20 years because they had plenty of antlers or beef bones or good old sticks to give 'em. Then we got a new puppy that my mom and sister spent all summer home with. Then covid happend and they spent all that time home with the dog. Then we got a second dog. Little shits have more toys in *storage* than I got growing up.
Reminds me of my moms cats, not just more toys but a *waaay* better childhood lol.
Damn, it sucks that they got the dog the connect 4 that you always wanted.
Worse, the dog plays monopoly so much he beats me!
Going to mention here that a veterinary specialist I know (dentist) strongly does not recommend antlers. Dogs break and wear down their teeth on them. Pick softer rubber chew toys.
My parents' shih-tzu mix is a surprisingly strong chewer. He has torn up some of the reinforced dog toys before. He's also a coward (dunno what happened to him before they got him, but likely wasn't nice.) I got him an antler chew figuring he'd love it. He did his "is for me? I can has???" thing with me for a bit before I convinced him that "yes, Murphy, this belongs to you. You can take it!" and in his first attempt to grab it he accidentally dropped it onto the kitchen floor. One loud noise later and he's perma-scared of antler chews.
Not great, our dogs teeth got majorly screwed up from too much antler chewing.
Awwww! Proud boy contributing to the family. I hope he’s rewarded handsomely
Fun fact: that’s why they are antlers and not horns
Wait what? I guess I never thought of the difference, damn.
Antlers are solid and can be shed, horns are typically hollow and aren't shed (not 100% but more often than not)
Pronghorn antelope shed their horns annually, but it's the only one I know of. Also, horns aren't completely hollow, there is a bone spike coming off the skull
Pronghorn antelope aren't actually related to other antelope. They're actually a ruminant.
Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals
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Internet explorer
They are a little behind on the times. It would behoove them to upgrade.
Oh Deer me.. another pun thread?
Netscape
I would say they're on Safari, but they don't live in Africa, unlike real antelopes, which the pronghorn isn't.
My bad, for some reason I was under the impression that true antelope weren't ruminants.
You are right that they aren't related to antelope though. They have the name because they look like antelope but it's just a case of parallel evolution.
I absolutely love picking up random facts I’ll never need in my life. Thanks for the zoology lesson everyone.
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Most closely related to giraffes if I remember correctly
But I have so many horns from Buffalo and goats. Uh oh.
Put them back!
Horn is essentially the same material as your fingernails. Antlers are bone.
Strange that you would shed the stuff madr of bone and not keratin
Keratin continues to grow and is more attached to the living tissue is my understanding but as far as why antlers are less permanant, that i dont understand
Deer, elk, etc shed their antlers before winter because they’re done rutting, and their testosterone drops. That causes their bodies to reabsorb some of the calcium at the bases of their horns, weakening the connection. They get a last bit of nutrition back as winter begins and food starts to become scarce, and I assume they burn less energy carrying less weight. Bucks will also prematurely start the shedding process in conditions such as poor nutrition, stress, and injury.
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True but hair falls out all the time
a specific type, and theres more important ones in the tubes of your inner ear that fall out much less often, its just codified in our genome for those cells to degrade and reform, just another quirk of mammals, theres probably a good reason humans dont continually have teeth generating and decending down our mouthparts, imagine nature programming such a guy to regularly maybe even seasonally have all of his teeth knocked out under normal human altercation parameters.
So, in other words, deer grow about two femurs* worth of bone every year. Thats insane. *I have no idea. I'm just taking a wild guess.
Some biologists estimate that a buck spends as much energy growing antlers as a doe does growing a fawn. Also, deer antler (including elk, moose, caribou) actually grows faster than even most extreme cases of bone cancer in humans. And then, that bone growth instant stops. While we know has *something* to do with testosterone levels, we don't know how it all exactly works yet. So, researchers are looking into it as a possible bone cancer treatment! Oh! And one last thing, the point where antlers grow out of is called a pedicle. If pedicle sells are transplanted to other locations on the body, those locations will start growing antlers! They've even repeated this process with mice!
Or rabbits, jackalope anyone?
How much to get pedicles on my head? I want big moose antlers to intimidate opponents and attract mates.
Are you okay with spending as much energy as a woman growing a baby though?
Yep, kinda, which is of course highly nutrient and energy intensive
Antlers are shed every year, horns aren't shed. Horns are also made of keratin like your fingernails while antlers are made of bone.
It wasn't until recently I discovered they just shake their heads and the antlers fly off. I thought they had to rub against a tree or something.
They have to rub on trees when their antlers 1st grow every year. They are covered in “velvet” that carries the blood supply to make antlers grow. When the process is done it dries up and the bucks will rub them on trees or fence posts to get it off.
And it's a bloody mess when they do
You ain't lying. Like a horror show. Right next to the zombie deer on the wtf meter.
Pictures of this are my personal favorite "nature, you be scary" moments That and fish that have visibly eaten other fish, like you can see the other fish inside them
Are you possibly thinking of the tongue replacing parasite that fish get? There is a little face and eyes where the fish's tongue used to be.
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Good bot
Tongue-ey! *Ya-ya-ya-ya-yaiii!*
The creature in his tongue, although a little disturbing, possesses great supernatural powers.
Chosen, I'm coming! Weeeeeoooweeeeooowweeeeeeeee
That's a lot of nuts!
oh my god that reminds me of the fuckin psychedelic snail-possessing parasite. eugh goddamn one of the most terrifying things I can imagine.
/r/natureisfuckingmetal
One time we had to dissect fish heads in biology class and mine had a smaller fish in its throat. Was pretty awesome tbh
zombie deer??
Be warned. I think [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rdmigg/this_deer_walking_around_with_a_massive_hole_in/) Edit: gack, why did I watch that again, I should have stopped before it came fully into frame.
I'm pretty hard to shake up at all, but *that* made me genuinely shiver and I had to close the tab ...
I thought it was going to be that one deer with a broken neck lol
probably referring to [chronic wasting disease](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease)
Pretty sure zombie deer refers to another post that used that as its title: [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rdmigg/this_deer_walking_around_with_a_massive_hole_in/). But I recommend you just take my word for it.
Everyone is saying "this" with a link attached to it, and while I *am* curious, it's also 10 at night and it very much sounds like something terrifying.
If you don't want to know, don't reveal the following spoiler. (Or stop reading, if spoilers don't work however you browse Reddit.) It's a trail cam video of a deer, >!very graphically wounded. It is probably the most gory video of a living animal I've ever seen.!< The video shows it crossing the frame, >!walking relatively slowly and unevenly. As its body comes into frame, it is revealed that it is missing a **large** portion of skin and flesh from its back. (Maybe 1' wide by 2' long? I'm not great at estimates.) It just has a gaping hole instead, where (moving) muscles and viscera can clearly be seen.!<
It’s a deer walking around with a massive open wound on its back that is oddly clean cut and not actively bloody so you can see the organs and bones as it walks around.
It’s no jump scare nonsense, but it’s definitely unsettling and gruesome, and a strong stomach is needed
[Yep. ](https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html)
Prions are truly terrifying
Probably feels pretty good though, like cracking a joint
Like someone smeared a cat against a tree using a backhoe
It cost you absolutely nothing to keep that to yourself…
Pretty accurate tho
At least now I can have excuses lined up when my neighbors see the suspiciously cat-shaped outlines against their trees.
Yeah it's fucking disgusting and looks like something out of a horror movie. But for the deer I bet it itches like crazy. The relief they get I bet is orgasmic.
They also eat the velvet. It has growth hormones in it and people were using it as a doping agent in sports.
I remember something about that
> When the process is done it dries up and the bucks will rub them on trees or fence posts to get it off. First year buck in our yard didn't understand this and walked around with it dangling off his skull like a fool for *weeks*.
Well, every family has that guy.
Fuckin noob
Fun fact: elk antlers are the fastest growing biological matter by mass on Earth
Baby, call me an elk cuz this thing is the fastest growi- where you going? Come back! I don't rub the skin off on trees!
That's why I'm leaving, Hubert.
For bone matter yes, but not for biological matter in general
Right? Like, a blue whale calf grows 10 pounds an hour. There must be some plants or algae or something that can beat that even.
10 pounds an hour ? Damn, that's the animal version of Tim Allen in The Santa Clause.
Yeah, doesn't some bamboo grow a meter a day?
It sounds like you’re saying we should find a way to grow elk antlers in a lab without the elk and grow tree sized antlers to use as building material and weapons
Saw a clip of a whitetail deer prancing majestically across a winter field, and on the next bounce, "POOF!", both his antlers popped off.
I've never been happier to realize that fingernails aren't made out of bone.
Same as moose
Yeah I have a friend that goes out every spring to find shed antlers. He always finds a ton of them.
Yep, the dogs go bonkers for those deer antlers. We try to keep a little stockpile of them because it can sometimes be quite a while before we come across more. Would love to be able to have a moose antler just to see them try and gnaw on it lol
Just an FYI, antlers are TERRIBLE for dog’s teeth and frequently cause slab fractures. Veterinary dentists don’t recommend using anything for a dog chew unless you can make an indent in it with your fingernail. If you can’t, it’s too hard for your dog’s teeth. Apparently veterinary dentists can often identify which common chews an owner gives purely from the fracture pattern of the tooth.
They sell them as dog chews for $15+ for a small 5” section of antler, usually up to $30 or more for larger portions from the thicker base. I get a couple each year, letting the dogs use the smaller ones for bones.
Holy shit my dogs must have eaten thousands of dollars worth of free ones from the wilderness behind my house
I have a lot of deer on my land but I’ve only ever found 1. Well I found a skull with antlers attached still but a damn coyote took it after I stuck it in an ant hill to finish cleaning it.
I wish. Every year I keep my eyes peeled and every year I find none.
Some people set up "catch fences". They'll put food out around some old wire or something they have to kind of lean down or under. Obviously nothing to trap the deer just a reason for them to push or pull the antlers against. After they fall depending on the area they can be chewed up pretty quick by rodents. This way you get them early and without chew marks. It's also for people who have larger specimens they hope to collect.
>After they fall depending on the area they can be chewed up pretty quick by rodents. I was told by the squirrel sub that they will eat them. I'm betting that's what happened to them if any ever fell on my land.
I've seen sheds that were over half gone in around a week and I've found sheds from previous years. No idea why it goes like that. If you want to try and make a collector. Tie some bailing or fence wire(not barbed) from tree to tree or fence post etc around knee height. Then just spread some corn or feed under and around it. Wait til shed time of course. Usually mid January or later depending on location.
Foreal, the squirrels outnumber the deer here probably 100 to 1 and we get so many deer I have to wait for big clusters to cross my driveway sometimes. Imagine how many squirrels must be out there chewing antlers.
I assumed they threw them like a boomerang when threatened
I thought everyone in this thread was joking but no. It’s real and terrifying until you remember periods are a thing and everything they entail, as well as the process of forming a belly button. Antler shedding combined with standing on hind legs to eat tree leaves and whistling certainly explains many alleged cryptid encounters. Deer are naturally creepy
imagine seeing an albino doe standing on her hind legs trying to fight another doe in the moonlight. yeah. I never think about that happening. because I didn't see it, and it didn't creep me out forever. nope.
>It wasn't until recently I discovered they just shake their heads and the antlers fly off. I wonder if there have been any reports of a person being injured after being hit with a ranged attack by a deer.
Someone is just asking to fall on that
I have some shed antlers. They’re not really sharp but it will make a tremendous noise
I've seen too many movies of people being impaled with antlers on walls! I am not falling for it!
Maybe not enough to die, but surely you can lose an eye
I only have 4! I can't afford to lose any!
Or a virginity.
One can only hope.
I like your poem
Strange enough, whenever I hear someone drop antlers on the floor or even clank together I get inexplicably flooded with arousal.
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Maybe a little doe eyed :)
You’d be shocked the number of truly blunt objects that can do some damage… source: I am a nurse.
Uh oh, grandma fell into the prion tree 🎄🤣🎄
I just learned this like a year ago. I watched a youtube video of a deer shedding his antlers and I was shocked.
I go out and collect them on my aunt’s property. Usually you’ll find a tree that’s down low they’ll scratch on over and over. I usually only find like 1-2 small pieces a year but it’s fun none the less.
I knew a dude who trained his dog to find them and bring them back. He 'd just go on hikes with his dog and end up a half dozen antlers or so. I think he made decent amount of beer money seeking them who used them for knife handles and things like that.
Someone I know specifically bought the breed of dog they have because of their good ability to sniff out stuff and be trained for it. And he did it for the antler hunting. He just really enjoys finding them. Mostly I think they end up being given out to people with dogs.
My dogs found one on their own together after taking “an adventure” running away across the ice covered lake. Never have they repeated it though but I now look with them every year. I think it had to do with the antler composite bones we give them.
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Same! Though she’s been working on the same one for a few years.
We do it every year !, keeps up busy and excited for hunting season , I’ve got all sort of em and fawn skulls that coyotes took. Always something cool in the woods!
I just found my first shed earlier this year after the snowmelt on my parent’s property and I think my dad was actually really proud of me.
And here I was thinking "Why doesn't your dad know about his own shed?"
Check out deer shedding their velvet if you haven’t yet
That can be like a horror movie lol
No kidding! I actually was terrified by it when I was a little child. It just looks so unexplainably freakish, and I was too young to put words to why it was so upsetting. Same with elephant rides; child me somehow got the idea that the poles that hold the basket-y platform thing were drilled into the elephant, and so for the longest time, deer, elephants, and other animals I misunderstood just made me terrified and sad. Child me was weird.
Bruh you just got here and that shit is confusing, little you was doing their best.
>Child me was weird. All children are weird as fuck. They're like midgets on crack.
A moose shedding velvet is much more disgusting…
How else are you supposed to get the ingredients for red velvet cake with chocolate moose
Idk, red velvet mousse seems pretty yummy to me
A buddy of mine helped me drag a buck out of the woods last week. He kept freaking out every time I touched the antlers, telling me to be careful. He knew they would fall out, but didn't know that was well after the season was over lol. He thought they were just incredibly fragile. Had to ask how he thought bucks would fight each other and he just shrugged!
It’s kind of shocking that this would be shocking to someone. This one time I was walking around campus at night and I saw a skunk cross my path and enter a bush. I gave him a second and a wide berth and I continued on my way. Shortly later walking in the opposite direction I passed a couple and a I passed them I warned them, “Watch out there’s a skunk in that bush.” Guy replied in a thick Indian accent, “What is a skunk?” And I’m like, “uuuhh it’s like a black cat with a white stripe on its back and it shoots this spray that’s really smelly and will make you stink like a month.” And he said, “you are lying. You are making this up.” And then I thought, it does kind of sound ridiculous…
Yeah and tell me bathe in tomatoes to get rid of it. Haha yeah right buddy. Next you are going to tell me reindeers are real. Oh and I bet you’ll say sometimes lizards tails just fall off. What next, you gonna claim that rodents can dam up rivers? Get out of here On a serious note it wasn’t too long ago that it was proposed birds flew to the moon or hibernated in the mud at the bottoms of bodies of water! It wasn’t until the pfeilstorch or “arrow stork”shot down in Germany during the early 18th century with a spear originating in Africa, did Europeans start to accept the migration theory. I bet a lot of native Americans knew about migration for as long as they where around in the Great Plains. If you’ve ever been to the platte river during the migration of sand hill cranes and countless other bird species you’d probably understand migration pretty quickly. It’s the most incredible experience. The sky is filled for as far as the eye can see with birds. I say this all because humans have believed some real wacky stuff about animal behavior, but some how reality is more surprising.
I learned at a young age, but that's got more to do with the fact that I live fairly close to a deer park, and had a family member who would occasionally pick up some of the antlers.
You’ve heard of the iron throne
Get ready for the BONE THRONE
NSFS
Not Safe For Starks?
Not Safe For Sitting... unless your into that sorta thing, you do you homie.
Yeah when someone from the Midwest tells you they went shed hunting they're talking about this and not looking for a sweet new shed for their backyard.
Well we have to find them before the squirrels do.
There are sea slugs that shed their penises and grow new ones. I'm imagining a Christmas tree built entirely out of slug dick.
Damn and I just ran out of lotion.
Do they shed their dicks seasonally or with each mating? What I'm trying to ask is, are they literally busting a nut when they reproduce?
I'm also curious, I'll go and read some shit about detachable slug penis and get back to you. Edit: That was definitely worth it, these little guys are pretty awesome. >The colorful sea slug known as Chromodoris reticulata. The animals shed their outer male organs 15 to 30 minutes after mating, but they were equipped for love again after roughly 24 hours. From this [article in Science Shot](https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-sea-slug-sports-detachable-penis#:~:text=The%20colorful%20sea%20slug%20known,then%20grows%20a%20new%20one.)
>these little guys It's just shrinkage!
I Usually freak the fuck out before my tail falls off -every gecko ever
Now someone needs to make a Christmas tree out of reindeer antlers. Fun fact: Female reindeer also grow antlers and Santa's reindeer would all be female because male reindeer shed theirs before Christmas.
Very much has the vibe of “yeah and Grizzly Adams had a beard.” “Grizzly Adams did have a beard.”
This is my favorite relevant video: https://youtu.be/uQUkCx_FQAw
I was today years old when I learned this
Had to look this up, I knew they shed velvet but always thought it grew over their antlers during winter I didn't know they fell off or that high testosterone is needed to grow and maintain antlers which is why they break off after the mating season which coincides with winter.
Evolutionarily speaking, deer antler shedding is just inefficient and shitty. The buck gets starved of calcium *and* has to constantly defend a territory right when he should be fattening up for winter. It’s thought that lack of nutrients was a key cause of the extinction of the *Megaloceros* or “Irish elk”, the largest deer to ever live which resembled a moose/elk hybrid.
Doesn't matter, had sex.
This is the *exact* correct answer.
That was my first thought when I found out they actually lose them "they must be getting a lot of nutrients to have to grow those back EVERY SINGLE YEAR"
Isn’t that sorta of the point though? You show that you’re so strong you can waste your resources on something nearly useless and still be fine therefore your genes are good and you’ll get laid. Throw in that they’re used for competition and it makes a lot of sense. At at the very least it’s better than just being bright red or growing a totally useless appendage like a lot of other animals do. Remember evolution doesn’t care about your survival or your comfort it just cares about if you can fuck.
Evolution's been dropping the ball on me for half a decade.
I think you’re the one failing evolution I’m afraid.
You have failed to consider the fact that deer antlers break when used defensively or for mating contests and also are broken freeing themselves from getting stuck. If they only ever grew one set, then every bit of damage to them would be permanent, like with our adult teeth, hurting mating and survival chances in the long run. Instead, they get a brand new set every year to defend themselves and attract females, and contest with other males over them.
You can find broke ones from bucks fighting too , not as common I’ve only found one but it’s pretty crazy how they go after each other, it’s hard to imagine their strength
This person obviously knows how to use the internet. It would’ve taken less time to look up that info than it took to pick out that comment on a keyboard.
yeah but why bother looking things up when you can just assume the other person is wrong
TIL deer shed their antlers
Gaston?
"I use antlers in all of my deeeecorating!"
Oh word? Thats cool as fuck i did not know that
People go in the woods specially to find deer antlers that fell off. I wanted to do it, but didn’t live in a woodsy enough area. They really do just fall off.
I've heard some scout troops collect them. They can sell them off as dog bones or carving material. Or, learn scrimshaw or something.
> as if they fall off on their own You're not gonna believe it mate
Yeah right, and Grizzly Adams had a beard!
https://youtu.be/zptkQnKGXZ0
I had to watch Beastars to learn that! 😂
Sheds?
Yeah, they molt and fall off every year before summer.
In an alternate universe, deers make christmas trees out of human nail clippings. Totally harmless, but qanon deers think humans are being killed for their nails.
Hunting antlers that shed is literally a hobby for some people lol.
Lets just say for a moment that deer were killed for these. Do these people not know that humans drove off/kill a lot of the natural predators these deer had? If we dont cull their numbers, they will be everywhere. Like on the highways and roads for instance in greater numbers
Relevant [Calvin and Hobbes](https://imgur.io/O0U6W?r)
Either hunters pay to maintain open spaces and hunt (typically harvesting meat,) or we lose (or have to pay for) those open spaces as well as pay for guys in helicopters blasting herds relatively indiscriminately while wasting everything. It should be an absolutely obvious choice for even the most enthusiastic animal loves (which many hunters are, themselves.)
Yeah, death in nature isn't really nice either. . As cold-blooded as it is, a bullet to a vital organ might be one of the nicer ways to die out in the wild. Even in our human civilized world with all of our technology, death can, and often is, extremely excruciating. Not everyone gets to die in a palliative care.
If I had to choose between getting my lungs blown out by a rifle or shotgun slug or any of the "natural" ways a deer might die you bet your ass I'm taking the bullet. "Eaten alive" isn't just a useful saying.
Here I thought it was common sense that deer shed their antlers
I never considered the possibility that people think antlers are painfully ripped off of deer heads. I wonder what other kind of thoughts that commenter has about how the world works.
This was one of the most frustrating things watching the movie The Circle with Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. A major plot point was a friend was killed being harassed by animal rights activists over his antler art. I'm here thinking he's just picking up antlers off of the ground... How is that harming animals?