A few years ago, I had a discussion with a Michigan naturalist, who claimed that most whitetail bucks lose their antlers by mid- January. That has not been my observation here in Pennsylvania.
When I found my shed, I figured that the process was beginning locally, but a week later, my daughter saw six antlered bucks all together.
Antler growth and development is dependent on the photoperiod hours of daylight per day and testosterone levels, not temperature. So is antler drop.
When testosterone levels drop, antlers loosen and fall off. According to Kip Adams, wildlife biologist and director of conservation for the Quality Deer Management Association, testosterone levels are affected by photoperiod, nutrition, injuries and dominance. Poor nutrition or injuries lead to early shedding. Well-known antler expert Dr. George Bubenik, with the University of Guelph in Ontario, noted that testosterone levels are also affected by the presence of does that are in estrus.
Here in Pennsylvania, most does are bred in mid-November, but if un-bred does are present, bucks will keep their antlers longer. Again, according to Bubenik, another factor is continued fighting between bucks, which could be related to additional does in estrus. If bucks continue to spar, testosterone levels stay up and their antlers will stay on longer. Conditions this winter are vastly different all across Pennsylvania, but in my area, just when I think that it would be a good time to look for shed antlers, it snows another 4 inches or so.
I treasure my antler find, and as soon as this snow melts, I will be out hoping to locate another one. An expert at finding sheds, I am not. Some scientists believe bucks shed annually so they can replace damaged antlers.
A second theory suggests that bucks shed and grow new racks which get anywhere from 10 to 30 inches bigger each year to keep pace with their increasing weight and girth as they mature. Here are some interesting shed facts, along with tips to help you find more antlers. A severe winter with a lot of snow can also cause stressed deer to shed earlier. Other studies of captive deer show that bucks usually shed both antlers within three days of each other.
Then start looking. Once the bucks in your images go antlerless, start hunting hard. Bucks often walk only to yards and then lie down out of the wind on the first east- or south-facing hillside. Though they're far from the only animals with antlers in North America — the United States alone also features mule deer, elk and moose — white-tailed deer are certainly the most widespread and successful of the antlered animals.
The amount of daylight and the season dictate when male white-tailed deer shed and grow their antlers. They slowly begin to grow antlers in the springtime, with the growth rate rapidly increasing as summer arrives. Older bucks can grow as much as two inches of antler each week in the summer! A soft velvet layer coats the antlers to protect them and supply them with blood to help them grow. As fall begins, the antlers fully harden, and the velvet dries up and falls off just in time for the breeding season.
As the breeding season ends in the winter, the length of daylight shortens and the buck's testosterone levels decrease. The process of shedding occurs in the wintertime.
However, because the shedding process occurs as a result of the length of daylight, the exact period that a buck sheds his antlers varies a bit based on the region he lives in. For example, white-tailed deer living in Georgia shed their antlers earlier than bucks living in New York. Bucks in the southeastern United States begin shedding their antlers in January and February.
This process sometimes extends into April as well. Antler shedding begins slightly later in the northeast, with bucks shedding their antlers sometime in mid-February through the month of March.
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