How many persons, among the many thousands that annually visit our zoölogical parks, realize, as they pause to admire the noble bucks of the deer family,—particularly the wapiti, or American elk,—that their branching antlers are cast off annually and renewed and well hardened within the short period of seven months?
American Elk, or Wapiti, one week after antlers were dropped. (Copyright, 1904, by New York Zoölogical Society.)
Before describing the manner in which elk shed their antlers, I should like to explain the difference between “antlers” and “horns.” All the members of the deer family—the moose, caribou, elk (in Europe the animal which we call moose is known as elk), and smaller deer—possess antlers, while the appendages on the heads of goats, sheep, cattle, and the like are known as horns, and, with one exception,—the American antelope or pronghorn,—are retained by their owners throughout life.
American Elk, or Wapiti, one month after antlers were dropped. (Copyright, 1904, by W. T. Hornaday.
Elk shed their antlers about the first of February, though much depends upon the locality and upon the age and health of the animal. It often happens that one antler is carried several days after the other has been dropped. The new antlers push off the old ones, and when they appear they resemble scars on the animal’s forehead, but soon take the form of two black-velvet buttons about the size of silver dollars. As they continue to grow they gain in length only, and by the first of July they have attained their full size. If you could examine them now, you would find them soft, rather flexible, nourished by blood, and incased in a thick, tough skin covered with velvety fur. The antlers are now
American Elk, or Wapiti, antlers full-grown. (Copyright, 1904, by New York Zoölogical Society.)
“in the velvet,” as the hunters term it, a most critical period for the owner, who seems to realize it, for he is careful to avoid contact with anything liable to injure them. Should an accident happen and the skin get broken or the antler disfigured, it might result in the elk’s bleeding to death, or in his carrying a deformed antler until the following February. Through a process of nature the blood-vessels that have fed the antlers are shut off about the middle of July, and then they begin to harden. A few weeks later the elk may be seen rubbing them against trees or thrashing them about in the brush while endeavoring to rid then of the velvet, and in a few days it hangs in shreds and soon disappears entirely, The elk is now lord of the forest, and is ready to combat with his rivals or enemies.J. Alden Loring
Professor W. T. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoölogical Park, has kindly given permission for the use of the copyrighted photographs in this article. In his “American Natural History” is a calendar of the elk’s shedding its antlers.
