Antler growth not necessarily linked to size of individual deer

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A deer is a deer is a deer … unless, that is, you’re a hunter, or unless you work at a convenience store that tags them (deer, not hunters). At that point, it’s easy to draw distinctions between the critters, and to end up with all kinds of questions.

One such question arose this week, via an e-mail from Bridgewater.

“I am puzzled about something, and hope that you and/or your hunting buddies might offer some insight,” wrote one of my semi-frequent electronic pen pals, who had recently tagged two deer for hunters.

“Both of these deer were bucks, both were taken in the Snow Road area in Bridgewater, both were of good size (unfortunately, we do not have a scale, but these deer were plenty hefty), thus indicating that they were fully mature, but both had little tiny antlers – four points, well-polished at the tips,” she wrote.

“It seems to me that bucks of that apparent age and size should have bigger racks. Is there some cyclical thing which causes bucks to not develop antlers suitable for their age, or were these just well-developed in body for their age?”

Intrigued, I called Lee Kantar, a wildlife biologist who serves as the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife’s deer specialist, and put the question to him.

Kantar said antler size is dependent on a number of factors.

“Nutrition is a huge part [contributing] to the mass of the antler,” he said. “As far as its conformation, the way it looks, that’s really nutrition as well as genetics.”

Kantar said he suspects the deer are simply much younger than they may appear at first glance.

The reason: A mild winter has led to a great growing year for yearling bucks.

“The deer I’ve been looking at, we’ve been getting outstanding yearlings. We’ve been getting outstanding antler beam growth. Last year our average yearling buck [among those shot and sampled] was 118 pounds,” Kantar said. “[This year] I’ve been checking in deer above 118 pounds.”

Kantar said that larger yearlings might end up looking like they’re wearing undersized antlers.

“She could be looking at a big-bodied animal and she might think this is a big buck because it’s got four points, but it might just as well be a yearling,” Kantar said.

Kantar has plenty of deer research at his fingertips, and said that in the e-mailer’s Wildlife Management District – WMD 6 – that research indicates that the deer in question are likely youngsters.

“We looked at a mess of yearlings in that district [last year] and only 30 percent of them had spikes [for antlers],” he said. “That’s a fairly low percent. It’s low compared to the other districts I’m looking at.”

More of the deer had more than the two spike points.

“The mean number of antler points was 4.1 [among the yearlings],” Kantar said. Statewide, the mean number of antler points among yearlings was 3.2.

Last year’s numbers seem to indicate that your typical yearling buck in WMD 6 is a four-pointer. And with a milder winter and better feeding conditions, it’s easy to see how a young buck could put on a healthy amount of sustaining fat and look bigger than his true age.

A further breakdown of the deer sampled in WMD 6 last year: 40 percent of the bucks were yearlings, 24 percent were 21/2-year-olds, 14 percent were 31/2-year-olds, and 21 percent of those yearling-or-older bucks were 41/2 years old or older.

While Kantar thinks the two deer that spurred the e-mailer’s question are yearlings, he admitted that there is another possible explanation for the undersized antlers.

“The other alternative may be that he might be an older animal. There’s certainly a peak of body condition of a male deer,” he said. “That’s based on nutrition as well.”

Kantar said that when a deer’s teeth begin wearing down, its nutritional needs aren’t met as easily. Antler size may then decrease.

Hunters urged to pitch in

Maine hunters looking to give back to their local communities can do so next week during Safari Club International’s annual Sportsmen Against Hunger Week.

Beginning on Monday, the SCI Foundation is urging hunters to give part of their harvests to the hungry in their communities.

Sportsmen Against Hunger was launched in 1989, and a year ago hunters provided 93,735 pounds of game meat through the program. SCI estimates that total as the equivalent of 374,940 meals.

For more information on game processors and relief organizations in your area, check the SCI Web site at www.sci-foundation.org/humanitarian/sah.

The site lists 45 processors and nine relief organizations in Maine.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailiynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.