Losing the Velvet

Last week I posted photos of this buck in velvet. 

Yesterday he was back in the yard, but the velvet is starting to come off. I thought some of my readers might like to see this as it's not something that one sees everyday.

Male deer begin growing antlers in late winter/early spring. The velvet covering feeds the bone and helps keep it safe.

The bucks begin to lose the velvet in late August or early September as the velvet starts to lose its blood flow. It also indicates an increase in testosterone in the male deer. This signals the beginning of the rut, meaning the bucks soon will begin chasing the does as they hit their cycle for procreation.

Beneath the velvet is hard bone that makes up the antlers seen in white tail deer. The antlers are shed January-March, usually, and the process begins all over again.

Here is the buck with full velvet:

And here are photos of the velvet starting to come off on the left side of the deer's antlers. Note the red color of the bone as the velvet begins to shed. Eventually they will turn brown or brownish white.

You can see how much smaller the actual antler is once the velvet begins to come off as indicated in the last photo.

I've seen this shedding of velvet before but not often. This is the first time I recall being able to get photos of it (I took them through a glass door; the deer was about 30 feet away from me.).

Hope you enjoyed the biology lesson.