If after several generations all males have 12-point antlers, this development will have been due to:?
c) stabilizing selection. In stabilizing selection, natural selection favors intermediate phenotypes and disfavors both extremes in phenotype. The mean in the phenotype is not changed, but the variance is reduced, resulting in a narrowing of the bell curve.
True or False> Male deer has antlers and female deer does not have antlers?
Generally True, Sometimes a female will have a small stub. The only female deer with antlers are Reindeer which are actually caribou. Also the males lose and regrow their antlers each year, the number of points on the antlers increases every year.
Do male Whitetail deer get a point on their antlers for every year they live?
Hi JT,Loved your last album.WT antler points don’t correspond to age. Genetics, relative metabolic health, injury and illness are the determining factors.Hunters and biologists think of deer seen in the Fall as being 1/2; 1.5 to say 9.5 years of age. Born in the spring, a button buck has a nub coming up off of the Pedicle in his skull that is still largely hidden by fur in the Fall of that year. At one and half years he will have a nascent version of the rack he’ll wear for life. At 2.5 - 3.5 he will have a recognizable version of the rack he'll die with.Milo Hansen's buck had that rack at 2.5 years, it just got bigger over the intervening 3 - 5 years. Antlers decline in later life, essentially they wither into more slender, and often crooked, versions of what a buck will have grown in his metabolic prime.Deer in Northern Saskatchewan live at a latitude environment that doesn't typically admit 8 - 10 year old deer. However 10-point bucks are relatively common amongst 4 year old deer. Conversely, there aren't any 22 - 32 year old Non-Typical bucks, but the racks are out there walking around.Just my Take,Pat Longworth
Are there any species of deer whose does have antlers?
As far as I know it can happen in any species of deer that grow antlers. Where I live in the Midwest, we have the whitetail deer...This is a male whitetail called a buck (pictured above). They'll typically get the size of the one in the above photo by age 4.That's with all the right things going for it:Great genes, great habitat (food, cover, water), not getting wounded (fighting other bucks, wounded by coyotes or a less than perfect shot from a hunter), etc...Pictured above is a whitetail doe....with antlers. This is commonly caused from a surge of testosterone resulting from a hormone imbalance, first pregnancy, tumors, or degenerative conditions of the ovaries or adrenal glands and produce velvet antlers.
What is a deer antler?
The antlers are those sort of tree-shaped horns that sprout from a deer's head. They're pretty much used for mating displays and butting against each other when fighting for territory. [EDIT: Also, I'm pretty sure the central point is A) The long days of winter affect antler acquisition in male deer - the other points are all brought up but this one is by far talked about the most in the passage you included. hope this helps - sorry about the misunderstanding! I just read the main bolded bit before I answered, which was a bit stupid of me.]
Do the nubs on antlers count as points when counting tines?
Counting points varies by the where and the who. Some say if you can hang a ring on it, it counts. Personally if I'm to that point, I'm not counting it. There's not trophies or money to be awarded if I have a 4x4 vs a 2x2 so what's the point really? Also east coast counts both sides, out west we usually count pairs. So 2 on either side is a 2 point, but east it's a 4. Since you're talking about counting nubs, I'd call it a 2 point. ****edit*** Looking at the picture you posted, I'd call it a 3 point and personally would ignore the brown tines. Looking at his coat, color, neck size etc, I'd say that's a fairly young deer. He won't be entering his prime for another 2 or 3 years. There should be older animals on the land unless there's some heavy predation for some reason.
Do you favor antler point restrictions for whitetail deer hunting?
Absolutely! Prior to antler restrictions many hunters were more likely to harvest a young buck that had not reached maturity for the satisfaction of having bagged a buck. Some called it a meat buck. This made the venison and bragging rights readily available to some hunters. With the antler restrictions now in place in a majority of counties in Texas, the hunters are now harvesting more mature bucks. The counties that do not have the restrictions are counties that the deer are over populated and need the number of deer reduced.
How do deer antlers grow back bigger?
First of all just b/c a deer may be older dosn't mean they will have a big rack. It depends on if they had enough nutrition that year. The antlers are the last thing the body puts into. What is ever left over nutrients will go into the antlers. I've seen mature (not always the older ones are mature either) bucks with smaller racks than younger ones that live in an evrioment with more food options and blessed with a smaller even male to female ratio deer heard. Witch is were proper deer managment comes into play. And by you saying theres more deer than people were you live, thats telling me that your local game commission isn't doing there job! The antlers fall off and grow back every year witch is why if you take notice that in the begining of there new antler grouth theres a whats called a "felvet". It's like a furry looking carpet covering there antlers and the points are also rounded instead of pointy at that time. And when a buck dosen't have there antlers at that time of year you can still tell the diffrence between a doe and buck. The body structer on a buck is a lot more bigger(unless it's a healther doe and a younger buck) and there ears are faced towards the front more and they have whats called "buttins" aka "buttin buck" or "spike buck", witch is the antlers just first starting to come through. Bucks do not go chasing doe through out the hole year. There a breeding period called the "rut". And thats when the doe go into estros (heat) and buck mate with them then. That takes place around late october and sometimes last until early december. Anymore question just ask.
Why do male whitetail deer (and other cervids) shed their antlers every winter? I’ve heard the biological termed answer multiple times, but I need it broken down a little more understandable.
Male deer have an annual hormone cycle. Levels of testosterone and other associated hormones change dramatically over the year, probably in response to daylight length (ie: photo-period) and temperature.Let's take a deer that I am familiar with - the European roe. They rut in mid summer - at this time, their testosterone is maximum, driving their libido and aggression.Hormone levels drop sharply after the rut and aggression stops. The buck is exhausted and becomes very shy. He spends his time resting and eating to rebuild his strength.By December, hormones levels are very low. The bone at the base of the antlers (ie: the pedicle) becomes weak and de-mineralised. Minerals are re-absorbed into the body. The antlers eventually get knocked off or they fall off under their own weight. (THIS ANSWERS THE QUESTION, I THINK).Hormone levels start to rise again through the spring and antler growth begins. Eventually, when the hormone level reaches a certain point the antlers stop growing and the buck rubs off the velvet.As the rut approaches the buck becomes more aggressive and territorial, ready for the next rut.I imagine that white-tail deer have a similar cycle, but at different times of year (white tails rut in autumn / winter, I believe).