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Interesting Deer &
Elk Facts
Depending on their species, male deer are called stags, harts, bucks
or bulls, and females are called hinds, does or cows. Young deer are
called fawns or calves.
Once considered
separate species because of the great differences between them,
American Elk (or Wapiti) and Red Deer from the Old World can produce
fertile offspring, and are now considered one species. (The European
Elk is a different species and is known as moose in North America.)
The hybrids are about 30% more efficient in producing antler by
comparing velvet to body weight.
All male deer have
antlers that are shed and re-grown each year from a structure called
a pedicle. Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only
female deer with antlers are Caribou and their cousins, the
Reindeer. Antlers grow as highly vascular spongy tissue covered in a
skin called velvet. Before the beginning of a species' mating
season, the antlers calcify under the velvet and become hard. The
velvet is then shed leaving hard bone antlers. After the mating
season, the pedicle and the antler base are separated by a layer of
tissue, and the antler falls off. Each species has a general antler
growth pattern, e.g. White-tailed Deer tend to grow antlers out and
forward with points arising from the top of the main beam of the
antler. Mule deer, a species within the same genus as White-tailed
deer, have similar antler growth except that the second point is
usually forked.
For Wapiti and Red Deer, a stag having 14 points is an "imperial",
and a stag having 12 points is a "royal". If the antlers deviate
from the pattern of the species, the deer is considered a
non-typical deer. |
