9/22/2023 0 Comments Small spike buck![]() This year, in just a few weeks, a relatively rare celestial event will occur as the full moon and the autumnal equinox happen almost at the same time (Sept. As they lick the branches, spreading their saliva, some falls on the ground from the overhanging branch causing the buck to paw up the soil, as he smells it, beneath the all-important signpost, the licking branch.ĭoes visit the licking branch too, in effect, leaving their hormonal business card, phone number and email for the bucks as they react to the changing and lessening daylight. They aggressively, and obsessively lick and hit the overhanging branches or a nearby sapling with their antlers. ![]() But they are soon polished white by rubbing on saplings, brush, posts, and each other’s antlers.Īt this time, bucks, especially the more dominant and older animals, begin laying down scrapes under their licking branches. I have observed them carefully rubbing on small trees and eating the velvet, sometimes leaving their bone white antlers bloody. And in bucks, with this biochemical signal, testosterone begins increasing dramatically as does the animal’s aggression, bodily changes of muscle mass, exterior coat color and density and hardening of the antlers.īucks immediately begin sparring in earnest as soon as they strip the velvet off. Its biochemical signals to the pituitary gland, primarily with the hormone melatonin. Changing light affects the pineal gland through the optic nerve. These animals (as do most) have a hormone regulatory gland called the pineal gland behind their eyeballs, near the center of the brain. How can changing daylight create such dramatic and noticeable physical as well as behavioral changes in deer, and other short day breeders such as sheep and elk? Labor Day, no matter when it falls, is still just a couple weeks before that significant annual astronomical event, the Autumnal Equinox, this year on September 22, when the days begin to become shorter than the night. And that is why their changes through the season, from velvet shedding, the rut, antler shedding, and the fawn drop in the spring are all regular by the calendar. Whitetails, being termed “short day breeders” by researchers are greatly impacted by the changing of light. This behavioral strategy protects the soft, quickly growing antlers. Older bucks are homebodies in the summer, moving slightly within the tight range of their bachelor group for most of the summer. And they jump back as if shocked when their antlers touch.Ī few bucks that are not cautious, or have bad luck during the summer antler growth period, damage their antlers, actually bending or sometimes breaking the tines or beam when running through the woods. Their thin reddish summer coats are replaced with the heavy, thick grayish coats during this time too, making some think the deer are sick, or have a skin disease because of the temporary patchy quality to their hides.īucks in velvet, just a week or so before in late August want to spar and lock horns, and will seem to begin to test each other, but the soft velvet antlers evidently are still too tender and soft for fighting. As the velvet sheds, and strips off usually in a day or so, bucks begin seriously sparing with each other and their necks undergo a marked physical increase in muscle mass. In that short time span, old bucks with thick antler bases and many points, as well as yearling spike bucks will all shed their velvet.Īnd that is just the beginning of the very noticeable metamorphosis that every whitetail buck undergoes in the fall. Since Labor Day is always the first Monday in September, there’s a seven-day calendrical swing, from the first of the month to the seventh. Our hearts beat a bit harder, knowing hunting season is just around the corner. In the world of the whitetail deer, Labor Day is significant because within a few days on either side, many if not most of the antlered whitetail bucks will have shed their velvet and turned “hard horn.”Īs deer hunters, we get excited at our first iconic sight of a buck with white antlers, instead of the fuzzy brown, velvet branches of summer.
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