CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 



239 



GROWTH OF ANTLERS 



The interval between the dropping of the old antlers and the time 

 when the new antlers start to grow again in mule deer of California 

 has been found, by accurate check, to vary from two to four weeks. As 

 soon as the old antler is dropped, the top of the pedicel, where the 

 antler joined the skull, becomes granulated around its entire margin 

 and in a short time is completely overgrown. This process has been 

 noted by me many times. On February 8, 1930, in Yosemite, I observed 

 and photographed a buck that was known to have shed his antlers 

 one week previously. In this instance, a distinct granular ring had 

 already formed around the outer rim of the pedicel or process of the 

 skull upon which the antler grows (see Fig. 80). Within ten days the 



Fig. 80. As soon as the antler is shed the scar becomes granulated and in a 

 short time heals over, as in this California mule deer buck with antlers shed one 

 week. Yosemite, February 8, 1930. Wild Life Division No. 781. 



.pedicel was completely covered with black naked skin, which then 

 remained free of any covering of velvet or hair until after the new 

 antler had begun to develop. 



My own observation has been that the most vigorous mature bucks 

 which are the first to drop their antlers are also the first to start to grow 

 new antlers in the early spring. The earliest date upon which I have 

 actually observed antlers "sprouting" was March 4, but in the case of 

 the unicorn buck of Yosemite, George Wright (MS) reports the new 

 antlers had begun to develop on March 2, 1928. Immature bucks, 

 together with sickly or poorly nourished males, are the last individuals 

 to shed their antlers and are correspondingly late in growing a new set. 

 In Yosemite Valley on April 8, 1929, George Wright noted bucks with 

 new antlers ' ' nearly an inch long. ' ' 



